Title - Tamil Nadu Express fire: Survivors say they heard cracker blast

HYDERABAD: Survivors of the fire mishap in the ill-fated S11 compartment of the Tamil Nadu Express told investigators that they had heard the sound of firecrackers going off inside the coach.

Some of the passengers who managed to escape to safety told Government Railway Police (GRP), that they had heard a noise of firecrackers between berths 40 and 44 just before the fire broke out.

Meanwhile, a team of APFSL experts are on their way to Nellore to examine the charred bogie.

According to the passengers, the noise was followed by power failure before a fire broke out in the coach's ceiling and quickly spread through the compartment with thick smoke engulfing the passengers, informed Nellore GRP sub-inpector (SI) K Srinivasa Chary.

S Prakash Singh, a 51-year-old passenger who was allotted berth 33, told police that he was woke up by the sound of a tubelight cracking whereupon he jumped down from his berth. "Singh said that some passengers fell on top of him but he somehow managed to crawl into the adjacent compartment," the SI told TOI.

The survivors informed GRP that most of the victims had died due to asphyxiation and in the stampede caused in the panic of fire. All the doors of the compartment had been locked at the time and it was those that still managed to sneak into the adjacent S10 and S12 bogies through the vestibule who escaped with their lives.

"The passengers could not utilize the emergency door as at the time of the accident, a double engine goods train was passing on the adjacent track. The goods train took about five minutes to pass in which time several passengers had already succumbed," the SI said.

VSK Kaumudi, the additional DG of Railways who visited the spot, said it was too early to say anything definitive on the cause of the accident. "We are in the process of recording statements of eyewitnesses. An Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory (APFSL) team will be coming to Nellore to examine the charred bogie and the investigation will continue from there," the ADG said.

The team of forensic experts in question was on its way to Nellore railway station where the charred bogie has been kept.Meanwhile, GRP have booked a case under section 174 of CrPC and Nellore DSRP K Srinivas Rao has been appointed as the investigating officer.