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At least eight passengers of the Alleppy-Dhanbad Bokaro express were crushed by another train when they jumped on the parallel tracks on hearing that there was a fire on the train. Many others were injured in the incident.
The freak accident occurred on Saturday evening at Gotlam station in Vijayanagaram district. Officials said that passengers of Alleppy-Dhanbad Bokaro express jumped from coach S-2 after pulling the chain.
On hearing the news about the tragedy, relief and rescue teams were sent from Visakhapatanam.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who was away in Bengaluru, spoke to the district collector and superintendent of police over phone and directed them to rush to the spot and supervise the relief operations.
The chief minister expressed deep shock and anguish over the incident.
Three days ago 45 passengers of a private Volvo bus were burnt alive on Bengaluru-Hyderabad highway. The bus burst into flames after it hit a roadside culvert. Apparently horrified over the incident people have developed a fear psychosis as many such incidents of fire in buses were reported since then.
It is not yet clear whether a fire had really broken out on the train.