A major tragedy, similar to the Odisha incident, was averted after the engine of a train and two other bogies delinked from the remaining around eight bogies and chugged down for almost 600 metres in Assam’s Kokrajhar on Saturday.

The incident was reported near Kokrajhar Railway Station where the engine of the train was delinked from the bogies, however, fortunately, no major accident took place as the train was running at a low speed and there was no passenger inside it.

One of the locals present at the spot during the incident said, “We saw the engine getting delinked from the bogies and travelled a few metres before the loco pilot noticed. Thinking about yesterday’s dreadful train incident in Odisha, we rushed to the spot but fortunately, no passenger was inside the train. Although we initially thought it was Rajdhani Express, however, later we came to know it was a new train and we are not aware of its name.”

They further informed that after the loco pilot noticed, he bought the engine back and with the help of guards who reached the spot from the railway station and linked the bogies.

It may be mentioned that several coaches of the 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, on the way to Howrah, derailed and fell on an adjacent track. The 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express coming from the opposite direction on a parallel track rammed into the derailed coaches. Some Coromandel Express coaches derailed and hit the stationary goods train on the third track.

The horrific train accident on Friday night claimed the lives of nearly 300 people and left over 900 injured. The train crash, the fourth deadliest in India according to available records, happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 pm yesterday.