12 from Jharkhand killed in train accident, many missing
By IANSTuesday, July 20, 2010
RANCHI - At least 12 of the 63 people killed in the train accident in West Bengal belonged to Jharkhand, railway officials said Tuesday, a day after the Uttar Banga Express rammed into the stationary Vananchal Express.
Three members of a family — Harihar Prasad Mishra, his daughter-in-law Suman Devi and son Nirmal Mishra — were amongst those who killed. Of Nirmal’s three children, two are injured and the third is missing. They belonged to Dhanbad district.
Dozens of people from Jharkhand are missing after the accident in the early hours of Monday.
The Sealdah-bound Uttar Banga Express rammed into three coaches, a luggage van and two unreserved general second class coaches of the Vananchal Express while it was standing at Sainthia station in Birbhum. About 150 people were also injured, 34 of them seriously.
Hundreds of people from Jharkhand travel in the Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express everyday.
The ill-fated train reached Ranchi around 4.30 p.m. Monday as host of anxious relatives waited at the station here.
Arjun Mandal, a lucky passenger of the Vananchal Express who survived the accident, returned to his home here.
“All of sudden we heard noise and people started screaming. I found myself beneath many injured people. I saw the ground of the coach. It was divided in two parts and I jumped from it to save my life. I saw death with my eyes,” a shocked Mandal told reporters.
