'Felt the train derail, there was smoke,' says Odisha train crash survivor

A young woman passenger who was a victim of the tragic train accident in Balasore, Odisha, arrived at the Chennai Airport today. She shared how she felt the train derail; after that, lights started to flicker, and there was smoke all over the compartment.

Upon her arrival, she told the media, "We felt the train derail. The lights began to flicker. There was smoke. I am not sure how many trains were involved. We were scared. Passengers inside the compartment were safe. Some suffered minor injuries. The elderly were removed from the compartment with the help of volunteers.”

A student of a city college, Rajalakshmi, said she had been to Kolkata for an internship. She remembered the accident as having occurred around 7 pm on June 2 and said that due to the impact of the sudden collision and derailment, passengers in her coach fell down, and one man sustained a bleeding injury on his nose.

Several passengers who had travelled in the unreserved compartments appeared to be migrant workers heading to Tamil Nadu or Kerala, she said. "I could see some of them wailing as they lost their dear ones," she said.

Another passenger, Ramesh of Tenkasi district, said the accident was devastating. "The death toll could be on the higher side than being imagined now," he said.

The Tamil Nadu government has established contact with 127 passengers of Train number 12841 - Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express and another five of 12864 Sir Viswesvaraya Terminal-Howrah Superfast Express, said Tamil Nadu Revenue Minister K K S S R Ramachandran.

He told reporters here that a supplementary team of officials comprising two district revenue officers, three deputy collectors and three tahsildars who are conversant in Hindi and Odia have left for Odisha to coordinate with the officials in the rescue activities.

On its part, the health department in Tamil Nadu has readied about 40 beds in the ICU at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here and alerted the medical teams in other major hospitals in the city and the periphery to extend medicare to the injured passengers who would arrive on June 4.

"About 100 doctors have been told to remain alert and respond to any emergency," Health Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi said.

(With PTI inputs)