'We were in disbelief that we had survived,' says survivor of Balasore train crash who arrived in Chennai

The number of dead in the horrific train accident at Balasore is likely to be far greater than reported at this time, according to the passengers from the tragedy-hit train who arrived in Chennai on Saturday. This is because the unreserved compartments were full of people, largely migrant labourers travelling to Tamil Nadu or Kerala, reported the news agency PTI.

Nagendran, who works in Kolkata and hails from Ramanathapuram, was one of the passengers on board the accident that hit Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, who arrived at Chennai airport today afternoon.

He said, "The second the accident happened I thought I was going to be dead. I had left Kolkata for Chennai yesterday in Coromandel Express. The accident happened near Balasore."

The Coromandel train driver applied brakes on seeing the goods train and that is why scores of passengers survived, he said. The Sleeper and general cars were the worst affected, he said.

"I was in B1 compartment (AC coach). B1 to B4 compartments were unaffected. The B5 coach had derailed...Volunteers arrived at the spot first and helped. It was completely dark. We could not see anything clearly...All of us in the AC coaches were in disbelief that when so many people died, we had survived," he said.

On Friday, the 12841 Shalimar-Coromandel Express collided with a goods train in the evening around 7 pm, killing nearly 300 and injuring around 900 people at Bahanaga Bazar station in the Balasore district of Odisha. Rescue operations are still underway.