A woman and her son were killed after being hit by an express train near the Tambaram railway station on Thursday afternoon.
Railway police said the woman, believed to be around 30 years old, was crossing the tracks with her one-year-old son, when a long-distance train, on its way to Egmore, hit her around noon.
Both the woman and the child died on the spot. As of Friday evening, they have not been identified, railway police said.
The victims’ bodies have been kept at the mortuary at the Tambaram Taluk Government Hospital in Chromepet. An investigation has been launched into the incident.
In the absence of a flight of steps at the road overbridge for the benefit of pedestrians, several thousand people cross the railway lines to get to Grand Southern Trunk Road on the west and Velachery Main Road on the east, putting themselves at risk, locals said.