Title - Schoolboy has miraculous escape

Sameer Mehboob Hussain was ecstatic when he boarded the Hampi Express at Koppal station on Monday night. This Class VII student of Koppal Government School was on his first visit to Bangalore for an IPL match.

    His elder brother Farooq Hussain (22) had promised to take him to the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. If not the match, he’d been promised a trip to the stadium and a glimpse of the players when they arrived in their coach.

    But his dreams ended in tears when the boy saw Farooq and sister Mashooda (20) burn to death. Hadn’t Sameer taken a walk in the compartment, he would have remained with them in the first bogie which bore the brunt of the collision. Luckily, he remembered the cellphone number of his father Mehboob Hussain and with police help, he called him.

    The mortuary at the Penukonda Government Hospital was filled with grieving families looking for their loved ones. More than 16 bodies, including 12 charred beyond recognition, were shifted there.

    Some families lost their breadwinners; some their siblings and parents. Women were wailing while men helped police identify the bodies.

    Sharanavva Pakeeramma of Gangavathi was trying to console Hanumavva, as she’d lost five family members. “Around 17 of us left Gangavati as our mason needed workers. Five relatives, including a couple, their daughter and two others are missing,” she told TOI. Railway police said they needed to crosscheck their names with the list of the dead.