Amritsar: Nearly 100 affected, claims Civil Hospital Emergency Medical Officer

Nearly 100 people have been affected by the tragedy, where a crowd of Dussehra revellers spilled onto the railway track was run over by a train here, claimed Emergency Medical Officer at Civil Hospital.

Dr Bhupinder Singh, Emergency Medical Officer at Civil Hospital said, "Exact figure of casualty is not very clear. We can explain about those who are with us. There is a displayed list of 51 patients, 39 dead bodies are here for the postmortem, and about 10 were indoor patients in which 6 are still here so the count of accident victims that we have received at this hospital is approaching to 100. Patients have also gone to other hospitals and it certainly it is a big tragedy. Maximum deaths have occurred due to blood loss, head injuries and fractures."

Singh further asserted that adequate number of medical professionals have been deployed to assist the patients.

Sharing more details of the casualties, senior police official Lakhbir Singh, said, "Total 59 people were brought here, out of which 9 were declared brought dead. As of this hospital, there are 39 dead bodies here and 19 dead bodies are in Guru Nanak Hospital. So the count of casualty is 58. It is also possible that some people were taken by their kin directly to the home, so casualty count can increase."

The accident took place in Choura Bazar near Joda Phatak area of Amritsar where a large number of people were watching the burning of Ravana effigy while standing along the railway tracks when a Jalandhar to Amritsar train crushed them. In the accident, as many as 60 people have lost their lives while 51 others have sustained injuries.

The public gathering standing on the track reportedly could not hear the hooting of the train due to the exploding firecrackers.