An 18-year-old student escaped with injuries after falling from a train at Saidapet on Tuesday night.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) police said R. Karthik of Adambakkam, a diploma student, was travelling on an EMU train from Chennai Egmore to St. Thomas Mount with two of his friends. They were standing near the door of the compartment.
Around 9.45 p.m., after the train had passed the Saidapet railway station and was on the Saidapet bridge above the Cooum river, Karthik, who leaning out, accidentally hit himself against a signal post.
He was thrown off the speeding train and fell into the river.
“After his friends alerted the Guindy station authorities, we went to the spot and frantically searched for the teenager in the river. Miraculously, considering he fell down 20 feet from the train, we found him buried waist deep in the slush,” said RPF constable S. Kalairashan of Saidapet.
The constable waded into the slush and pulled out Karthik who had suffered a fracture in his arm from hitting the signal post, said sub-inspector S. Maharajan, RPF, who was also part of the team that rescued Karthik.
Meanwhile, Karthik’s friends rushed on to the tracks and helped their friend on to an ambulance. He was rushed to Government Royapettah Hospital and was later transferred to another hospital for treatment.
The teenager survived only because he fell feet first into the river, the RPF personnel said.
