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The bursting of the crackers from the Ravana effigy had reportedly drowned out the noise of the approaching train.
At least 50 people were killed in Friday evening when a train mowed into a crowd watching the Dussehra festivities that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching the burning of a Ravana effigy, officials said. The bursting of the crackers from the effigy had reportedly drowned out the noise of the approaching train.
The accident took place at Joda Phatak in Amritsar.
The train was coming from Jalandhar to Amritsar. At least 300 people were at the spot watching ‘Ravan dahan‘, sources said.
“The administration and the Dussehra committee are at fault, they should have raised an alarm when the train was approaching, they should have made sure that the train halts or slows down,” an eyewitness told news agency ANI.
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh tweeted soon after the accident that he was rushing to Amritsar to personally to supervise the relief and rescue efforts and that the state government would give Rs 5 lakh to the kin of those killed.
The Press Trust of India news agency said two trains arrived from the opposite direction on separate tracks at the same time giving little opportunity for people to escape. However, the casualties were caused by one of the trains, it quoted officials as saying.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was extremely saddened by the accident. “Have asked officials to provide immediate assistance that is required,” Modi said on Twitter.
A witness said the train didn’t even sound its whistle as it sped past the site, where hundreds were watching the burning of an effigy of demon Ravana during the Hindu festival of Dussehra.
“Why did authorities allow the fireworks display so close to the railroad track?,’” he asked. He told the Republic television channel that he lost two brothers.
Another witness said the victims didn’t realize that a train was coming because the fireworks were too loud.
Navjot Kaur Siddhu, a local Congress party politician who was the chief guest at the religious function, said the celebrations take place in the area every year and railroad authorities are alerted to run the trains at slow speeds.
A large number of people live in the area with homes on both sides of the railroad track, she said.
However, junior Railways Minister Manoj Sinha said after visiting the accident site that organizers did not alert railroad authorities about their plan to hold a religious function there.
Shatrughan Das, an injured 35-year-old factory worker, said he was sitting close to the railroad tracks watching the fireworks. “I didn’t see the train coming. I fell unconscious. I saw the police taking me to a hospital as I regained consciousness.”
“I am feeling a strong headache and pain in my back and legs,” Das said from his hospital bed. “But I don’t have serious injuries.”
Following the accident, people rushed to the site and shouted at railway officials for not taking precautions. The site of the accident is nearly 465 kilometers (290 miles) north of New Delhi.
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