Kanpur train tragedy: Man escapes death as he swapped seats

Santosh Upadhyay can’t be more grateful to a couple for his life, but he has no means to convey it to them.

He was travelling in S2 coach of the ill-fated Indore Patna Express when a couple in the same coach requested him to shift to S5, for they had a seat there.

He said he accepted their request, knowing little he would owe his life to them.

“They asked me if I can give them seat no. 11... they asked if I could exchange seats as they had seat no. 7 in S2 and they could sit together... So, I agreed in the name of humanity as there was a woman.

“It was 10.30 pm and the train had started from Beena. So, I went to the coach S5,” Upadhyay said.

14 coaches of the train 19321 were derailed in the wee hours on Sunday, killing 148 people and injuring around 200 others including many seriously.

Four coaches of the train -- S1, S2, S3, and S4 -- were badly damaged in the worst rail accident in recent years that took place just a little after 0300 hours between Pukhrayan-Malsa stations.

“The couple died in the accident. I do not think there were any survivors in S2, going by the condition of the mangled coach...

“Railway officials saved who they could... Bodies and injured were lying scattered in the farms nearby. The condition was such that people had to walk over dead bodies,” he said.

IMAGE: Rescuers and relief works in progress at the site of accident where Patna-Indore Express train derailed near Pukhrayan village in Kanpur Dehat district. Photograph: PTI Photo