Twenty-year-old Ruby Gupta was to get married on 1 December in Mau in Uttar Pradesh.
Now, she is desperately looking for her father in Pukhrayan, Kanpur with a fractured arm, after the Indore-Patna Express carrying her family derailed, killing over 120 people.
I cannot find my father and I have been looking everywhere for him. Some people told me to look in hospitals and in morgues but I am clueless. I have a fractured arm and my sisters have also sustained injuries.Ruby Gupta, Survivor
The eldest of her siblings, Ruby was travelling with sisters Archna (18), Khushi (16), brothers Abhishek and Vishal, and father Ram Prasad Gupta.
I do not know if my marriage, which was to be held on 1 December, will go as planned. I want to find my father now. I have tried calling everywhere, but I do not know what to do now.
Ruby is one of the hundreds of survivors in the rail mishap after 14 coaches of 19321 Indore-Rajendranagar Patna Express derailed near Pukharayan district of Kanpur. At least 126 bodies have been recovered and over 200 people have been injured according to preliminary counts. Several bodies are still reported to be trapped under the wreckage.
Two Children Pulled Out Alive
Two children were pulled out alive from an overturned bogie of the Indore-Patna Express, offering a glimmer of hope to rescuers looking for survivors among the heaps of metal and scattered baggage.
The two boys were aged six and seven with a woman, probably the mother of the boys, found dead near them.
After the accident, rescuers have been working round-the-clock to rescue survivors who are trapped under mangled train compartments.
There is another coach which is smashed and two girls are still trapped inside it. We can’t use cranes to pull them out. But I want to assure you that they will be rescued. After that, we will execute a search operation to find the bodies before closing the operation.AK Singh, National Disaster Rescue Force Commandant
“I Hope She is Alive”: Shocked Passengers Struggle to Comprehend Tragedy
As rescue operations are underway in Kanpur, survivors of the Indore-Patna Express derailment are reeling from the shock of the accident and are desperately looking for their relatives, reports the Hindustan Times.
We were travelling to Patna when we felt the train skidding off the track. I am severely injured and am still to come to terms with the incident. I am worried as I am still unable to locate my mother. I hope she is alive.Passenger to Hindustan Times
A passenger from Indore, travelling with her two brothers and three sisters, was also looking for her siblings.
The train derailed at 3 am and I was in coach No 5 at the time. Around four to five people who were travelling with me have been missing since. We were petrified when the incident happened, but I was saved, thanks to the grace of Mahakal.Passenger to Hindustan Times
Worried Kin Reach Indore Railway Station Looking for Information
Anxious relatives of nearly 200 passengers who boarded the ill-fated Indore-Patna Express rushed to the local railway station and made frantic inquires to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. Ajay Jha is running a help centre at the Indore railway station in coordination with the Government Railway Police (GRP).
Inquires pertaining to 200 passengers have come to us so far. We, along with the help from Railways, are gathering informationAjay Jha, Social worker
However, Government Railway Police Superintendent Maheshchandra Jain said that they have not received any official list of the victims of the accident.
The Gateman, First to Witness the Tragedy
Vimlesh Kumar, a gateman at 206E Gate falling under North Central Railways (NCR), is accustomed to watching minor accidents on the track. What he witnesses on Sunday, however, he will never forget, he told Hindustan Times.
“I still cannot believe what I saw. It was no less than watching a train tragedy in an action film. But unlike movies, there were all cries and screams at the end,” he told the publication.
Vimlesh, who took charge of the night duty around 12 am, was the first prime witness to the accident.
“Around 2:45 am, I manned the gates, giving clearance to the Sabarmati Express and then at 2:45 am for a goods train. But then it was time of the Indore-Patna Express and I was waiting with a signal for the train to arrive,” he said.
After he heard a noise, different from that of a train, Vimlesh knew something was wrong.
“I pulled my head out of the cabin and saw fumes and sparks all around. I sat down for a minute as I couldn’t connect myself to the situation and it took me a good 50 seconds to realise that it was a crash,” he said.
4-Year-Old Child Looks For Father, With a Photo
Four-year-old Adarsh Pandey is one of the injured admitted in the Pukhrayan Community Health Centre (CHC) in Kanpur. Lying on the bed with a fractured leg, Adarsh looks at the phone that a policeman holds for him. He was asked to identify his father from looking at all the photos of dead victims, The Indian Express reported.
A crying Adarsh could not fathom what’s happening. Doctors said he was too traumatised to talk, but managed to convey that he was travelling to Kanpur with his parents.
“Kanpur ja rahe the, mausi ke yahan ja rahe the (We were going to Kanpur, to my aunt’s place),” The Indian Express reported him as saying.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times and The Indian Express.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)