All we saw were dead bodies, blood: Andhra survivors recall horrific train crash

Guntur/Vizag: Many of the passengers were on their way to their parents’ home, and the children were excited to see their grandparents for their summer vacation. But many wouldn’t have imagined that this vacation would become a nightmare and a day that will not be forgotten for many years.

Blood, dead bodies, scattered luggage, darkness, and people screaming for help — this was the scene between 7–7.30 p.m. on 3 June when the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train collided at Odisha’s Balasore.

In what is being called India's deadliest railway disaster, 288 people were killed and over 1,100 injured. Many will likely suffer post-traumatic stress.

About 10 minutes before the incident, four-year-old Sharif and two-year-old Umera Bhanu were on a video call with their father, sharing their excitement about going to their grandparent’s place in Guntur. As the kids cut the call and were getting ready to sleep, they experienced a sudden jerk. While a few fell down from their berths, within minutes, the passengers heard a loud noise and a few compartments collided with another train.

“Ten minutes after I spoke to my kids, I got a call from my wife Sayyad Habibunisa. She was shouting ‘Lights are off,’ ‘I don’t know where the kids are.’ While I was on the phone, she started searching for the kids using a torch light,” Sayyad Vali who works at the Panagarh Army base in West Bengal told NewsMeter.

Sayyad Habibunnisa and her kids were among the survivors travelling in Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express to Vijayawada. They were in the B8 coach and were on their way to Guntur for the summer vacation. With the help of the locals, Sayyad Habibunnisa and her kids managed to get out of the compartment with minor injuries.

“Our bogie fell to one side. We were with our family friends and we immediately managed to escape with minor injuries. The saddest thing is the passengers in the upper berth in the same coach were found dead. The whole scene was horrifying with people shouting, kids crying, and everyone running,” said Habibunnisa.

Walked 10 km to get a bus

While her husband Sayyad Vali was on call instructing her not to panic and get out of the place, the mother and her kids reached the road. “We had to walk about 10 kilometres to find transport. It was so dark, we didn’t know where to go. The rescue teams helped us find a bus to Bhubaneshwar at around 2 a.m. From there, railway officials helped us board the special train to Vijayawada,” said Habibunisa who reached Vijayawada railway station at around 9.30 p.m. on Saturday.

It was a nightmare for her husband who couldn’t get a train to reach the spot as all the trains on the route were cancelled. Photos and videos of the accident sent by his wife scared him. “Until the time my family told me they reached Bhubaneswar safely, I was tense. It is like a second life for me and my family. The happiest thing was my kids were not injured at all, but they were in fear, which they should overcome slowly,” said Vali.

“Being in the Army, I know what accidents and disasters can be like. But this was the worst,” he said.

A big thanks to the locals

Another passenger, Sushanth Kumar Das, a survivor of the Odisha train crash who reached Vijayawada along with his wife, said it was fortunate that they could escape safely. “The compartment in which we were travelling was not much affected. Big thanks to the locals. Without them, we couldn’t have escaped,” said Das.

He described the scene and said, “As we came out from the bogie, all we could see was dead bodies, blood, people lying on tracks with broken legs, the injured, and people taking up rescue operations.”

Passengers ran onto the roads

According to a passenger who was travelling with his mother in the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, they heard a loud noise and suddenly his mother who was sitting on the berth. Their coaches were not close to the train engine, which is the reason why the passenger immediately rushed out onto the roads.