Tuesday, July 20, 2010

West Bengal train accident: Locals turn Samaritans at train disaster site

They have been working tirelessly but silently since the Uttarbanga Express crashed into the Vananchal Express at the Sainthia station in Birbhum district, ferrying the injured, donating blood and helping out in the morgue. Monkhush Hossain Khan, a resident of Joramath Churmura area here collected a group of young men and drove them in his truck to the Sainthia station 40 km away after hearing about the accident. Khan and his band of Samaritans after reaching Sainthia ferried the injured to the Suri Sadar Hospital and the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital in the neighbouring district.

"We went to work at 4:00 am yesterday and have been continuing since. We only took a two hour break to bathe and change our clothes which were soiled with blood and dirt," Khan told PTI here. He said that his group of young volunteers took over 20 injured passengers of the Vananchal Express to the Suri Hospital after rescuing them from the wrecked bogies. "Some of them were referred by doctors at the hospital here to the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital and we wasted no time in driving them there. I hope they survive," he said.

Now that the injured were in hospital and rescue operations over, Khan and the young Samaritans are helping out at the morgue. Besides Khan there are other volunteers too from this district town who turned out to help out when disaster struck. "When word went around that there was a shortage of blood at the hospital because of the large number of injured, a few hundred of us immediately turned up to donate blood," a citizen said, declining to be named. The morgue employees too have been working ceaselessly sine the train collision and Ratan Dom, who head's the department, says he has handled over 40 bodies so far. Several local clubs also arranged food and water for distraught family members of the dead and injured. The train mishap has claimed 66 people so far and injured 83 others.

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