(REOPEN DEL 63)

A majority of the dead was thought to be women and elderly men. Some of them rolled down the stairs amid the jostle by passengers to reach the departing train. "Mera pitha shaheed ho gaye?,(Is my father dead?)" screamed a middle-aged woman at a hospital on hearing that her father had succumbed to his injuries sustained in the stampede. It is feared that the toll may go up since the condition of some of the injured were in a critical condition. TV footage showed a grief-stricken man in tears as he cried for medical help for his father who lay on the platform. Eyewitnesses said some bodies lay unattended for several hours amid complaints there was no proper coordination among the agencies concerned after the mishap. "For crowd management, the police resorted to lathicharge," an injured passenger said.