Bihar: 'Railway track full of blood, body parts'

Patna, Aug 19: Thirty-seven pilgrims were killed and over a dozen injured after the speeding Rajya Rani Express rammed over them in Bihar's Kagharia district, on Monday morning.

The tragedy happened when the ill-fated train was travelling from Saharsa to Patna between 8 am and 8.30 am.

An eyewitness Rajendra Sinha told OneIndia on phone that the railway track where the mishap happened was "full of blood all over with cut hands, legs, heads and torsos of dead pilgrims."

He also said that among the dead, most of them were children, women and Kanwarias (pilgrims).

Sinha also revealed that soon after the incident, many railway authority workers fled from the spot.

"The outraged public not only set ablaze the trains' coaches but they also ransacked the station", he said.

"Even two hours after the mishap took place, the police and the rescue authorities did not reach the tragic spot", he added.

Sinha, who encountered the gory scene, also feared that death toll may cross 45.

Injured victims were admitted to the nearby hospitals with the help of locals, who brought their cots to carry injured people to hospital.

It has also been reported that a bridge has collapsed in Madhepura, that's why, it can take 3 to 4 hours for rescue workers to reach there.

The situation has become tense as the train has been surrounded by more than thousand angry locals.

Additional Director General of Police S.K. Bhardwaj confirmed the death of 35 Hindu pilgrims (Kanwariyas) when the Rajya Rani Express train mowed them down while they were trying to cross the rail track at the Dhamara railway station on the Saharsa-Mansi route of the East Central Railway (ECR).

In the month of Shravan (July-August), thousands of Hindu pilgrims visit a temple in Deoghar, Jharkhand, where they offer holy water from the Ganga river to Lord Shiva at an ancient temple.

OneIndia News