Odisha train accident | Death toll nears 300 amidst discovery of more putrid bodies

At North Orissa Chamber of Commerce and Industry campus, Balasore, where bodies are temporarily kept to hand over relatives was overflowing with people. About 100 unclaimed bodies have been sent to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar for their preservation.

Thirty-six hours after one of deadliest train accidents snapped close to 300 lives in Odisha’s Balasore district, relatives continued to search their near and dear ones from putrid bodies at accident sites on June 4.

Five mutilated bodies were retrieved from under debris of coaches of Coromandel Express 12841 Coromandel Express (Shalimar-Madras) and 12864 Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express, which were being cleared for restoration works.

Though Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw declared that rescue operation was over on June 3, body parts continued to be discovered from the debris. Till Saturday evening, death-toll was put at 288.

Stinking smell from decomposed and dismembered bodies, however, did not hold back Mithun Kumar (25), a resident of Sonadiha village of Purnia, to try his luck at Bahanaga High School where bodies are kept after their retrieval.

With much determination, he tried to take off the white cloth covering the five bodies found on Sunday and his brother Lalit Kumar (22) was nowhere to be seen. Mr. Kumar’s desperation grew further, but he does not have any option to run away from the situation.

He draws solace from the fact that his other brother, Babu Saheb, who was also travelling in Coromandel with Lalit, escaped with injuries. “I managed talk to my younger brother admitted in the hospital over phone. But, I have not physically met him at a time when he had survived one the biggest tragedies of his life,” said Mithun Kumar.

Also read: Odisha train tragedy | Root cause of accident and people responsible for it have been identified: Railway Minister