Ambulance driver recounts ‘very disturbing’ scene at Amritsar train accident site

At least 59 people were killed Friday evening after a crowd of Dussehra revellers that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching burning of Ravana effigy was run over by a train near Amritsar.

An ambulance driver, who ferried some of the victims from the site of the train accident to the Guru Nanak Hospital in Amritsar, Saturday described the scene as “very disturbing”.

Members of National Human Rights and crime control organisation participate in a candlelight vigil to pay tribute to victims of Amritsar train accident. (Sameer Sehgal/HT Photo)

Soon after the accident, the Ambulance Seva Samiti of the Guru Nanak Hospital, attached to Government Medical College in Amritsar, operated round-the-clock service.

Ambulance driver Pratap Singh said that when they reached the site soon after the accident, the scene was horrifying with body parts scattered on tracks.

Pratap Singh, along with Jaspal Singh and Gurbax Singh, recovered close to 15 bodies.

At least 59 people were killed Friday evening after a crowd of Dussehra revellers that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching burning of Ravana effigy was run over by a train near here, officials said.

The train was coming from Jalandhar when the accident occurred at Joda Phatak near Amritsar, where at least 300 people were watching ‘Ravana dahan’ at a ground adjacent to the tracks.