Sixteen people were killed when a train hit them on the Kakrakhadi railway bridge between Udhna and Surat railway stations on Wednesday night. While 14 bodies were found on the tracks, two were found from the creek and nearby bushes. According to the police, the victims, including two women and three children, were walking on the bridge when they were hit by Kutch Express coming from Mumbai. Only seven bodies have been identified so far. The driver and assistant driver of Kutch Express, A K Sharma and Arun Kumar, who did not inform the authorities about the incident, have been suspended. They are being interrogated by police and Railway authorities.“The incident came to light when the Flying Queen train on way from Mumbai to Ahmedabad crossed the spot. The train driver, Deepak Paal, saw the bodies on the tracks on the bridge. When the train halted at the Surat railway station, he went to the control room and passed on a message about the bodies,” Railway Police Inspector H M Patel said. District Collector Dilip Rawal said as per the information they gathered, the victims were travelling on the Tapti-Ganga train and had got off at Udhna railway station. They were walking to nearby villages when they were hit. The spot where the accident happened is 2 km from the Udhna station.The officials guess that by the time the victims realised there was a train coming from behind, they were on the bridge and couldn’t escape. The only way out was jumping into the creek.
