'Everything switched topsy-turvy': Survivors describe deadly Pakistan coach crash
08 June, 2021
Norman Riaz was first lying on his bunkbed aboard the Millat Exhibit and using his mobile phone since it sped through the Pakistan countryside just before the deadly catastrophe in early stages Monday (Jun 7).
The train was heading north from Karachi to Lala Musa with around 600 passengers aboard when it derailed at 3.30am in the primary part of a 25-hour, 1,300-kilometre journey.
It isn't known what caused the coach to leap its tracks, but Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid - a former railways minister - described that section of the brand as "a shambles", while current minister Azam Swati called it "really dangerous".
Business-class passengers were extended on their bunks within their exclusive cabins, even though those in market were seated shoulder-to-shoulder in padded bench seats.
"I couldn't sleep," Riaz said.
Those in his cabin survived the derailment comparatively unscathed, but just moments later his world was switched upside down.
"We fell down but there have been no injuries as such," he explained.
"But when the train hit us, everything turned topsy-turvy. My mom died before my eyes, every person died."
'ONLY GREEN LIGHTS'
The Sir Syed Exhibit, in the last time of a similar- length journey in the contrary route from Rawalpindi, ploughed into the derailed train at quickness, cutting through metal carriages like a tin opener.
At least 40 persons were killed and over 100 injured - almost all of them from the Millat.
"We tumbled upon one another, but that had not been thus fatal," Millat passenger Akhtar Rajput told AFP.
"Then another train reach us from nowhere, and that hit us harder. When I regained my senses, I saw travellers lying around me, some had been trying to get out from the coach."
"I was disoriented and racking your brains on what happened to us when the additional train reach," Shahid, another passenger, told AFP.
The locomotive driver of the Sir Sayed Exhibit said he previously seen only green lighting as he trundled along the track.
"However when I crossed the signal and increased then I saw few people signaling me (to stop)," Iftikhar Thaheem told localized media.
"I pulled the crisis brake, but it was too late," he said, his brain swathed in bandages and uniform covered found in blood.
Native farmers and villagers were rapid to the scene and by later Monday were even so helping move wreckage, as army and civil engineers led a mass effort to very clear and repair the tracks.
Railway officer Tariq Latif told AFP that they hoped to have one line open up by midnight.
The railway first came through the cotton- and wheat-growing district in the 1880s, and little has changed in the 140 years since.
The accident occurred on a portion of track raised above fertile area that stretches to the horizon, with homes and small settlements dotted about.
As news spread, locals arrived on foot, bike and tractor to provide help, toiling under a blazing sun that pushed outdoor temperatures earlier 45 degrees Celsius.
A soldier stood on an overturned carriage, shouting instructions through a megaphone.
During the day the injured had been ferried by ambulances and private vehicles to local clinics and hospitals.
The dead were lined up next to the tracks, covered in sheets and blankets.
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