Odisha train accident survivor wakes up among the dead, grabs leg of rescuer
Robin Naiya was presumed dead as he lay on the tracks after the three-train accident on Friday night. During the rescue operation, he was picked up and kept along with the hundreds of bodies in a school room in Odisha’s Balasore, close to the train accident site.
The 35-year-old survived agonising moments in a claustrophobic school room among dozens of bodies.
Rescue workers entered the school room to remove mangled bodies piled there. And as one of them was walking amid the pile of bodies, he felt a hand suddenly clutch his leg. And then he heard a subdued moan asking for water. “I am alive, not dead, please give me water.”
At first, the worker froze in disbelief, but then mustered courage to take a look at 35-year-old Robin, who was alive but struggling to move and pleading to be saved.
The rescuers immediately rushed him to a hospital.
Robin Naiya, a resident of Charnekhali village in North 24 Parganas in West Bengal, lost his legs in the accident but escaped alive.
The Railways on Tuesday updated the toll in the Odisha train tragedy to 278 after three more people succumbed to their injuries.
Robin Naiya, along with seven other people from the village, was traveling from Howrah to Andhra Pradesh by the Coromandel Express in search of work.
He lost both his legs in the worst train collision in two decades. Currently, in critical condition, Robin Naiya is under treatment at the orthopedic ward of Medinipur Medical College Hospital.
“Robin, my nephew, was travelling to Andhra to work as a migrant laborer. As the train met with an accident, he lost consciousness. He found himself amid a pile of bodies. He held one of the rescuer’s legs asking for water, then he was discovered,” said Manabendra Sardar, uncle of Naiya. ALSO WATCH | How Odisha triple train tragedy happened | Simulation
“Robin then asked for water and pleaded with him to save his life. The rescuers then moved him to the local hospital,” he added.
Robin Naiya’s six friends are still missing.
