Caught under train, woman, children safe

A woman and her two children had a miraculous escape when they were trapped underneath a speeding electric train at Chromepet railway station on Wednesday.

According to Southern Railway sources, they received information about a suburban electric train between Tambaram and Chennai Beach passing over a woman crouched between the tracks at Chromepet railway station.

Personnel of Government Railway Police in Tambaram, recalling accounts of eye-witnesses, said the woman was crossing the railway track to reach the platform of Chromepet railway station. The woman, who noticed the approaching electric train, realised that scaling over the walls to reach the platform would be fatal and hence lay down on the tracks, over her two children.

The motorman of the train noticed it and brought the train to a halt, but nearly four coaches had gone past. Waiting commuters and the train's crew rushed to the spot. The woman was taken out of the spot with the help of others. She had sustained bruises, while her two children were safe, though unconscious.

The woman, Chitra hailed from Vandavasi in Tiruvannamalai district, and was married to Rajendran.

The couple have five children and she reached Chromepet on Wednesday afternoon with two of them, Ramamurthy (5) and Abhinaya (3).

Railway police sources added the woman had laid down on the track while making sure she had protected her children.

None of the equipment below the rake had made serious contact with her. Further investigations were on, police said, adding that the woman was taken to Tambaram Taluk Government Hospital in Chromepet and then shifted to Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in Chennai. The women and her two children were out of danger and there was no cause for concern, police added.