An injured man in a Howrah hospital. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Howrah, July 4: Shabek Ali Mollah could not find his uncle and aunt who were on the Sankrail-Howrah bus.

Three hours after the bus had fallen off Bankim Setu around 4pm, the Howrah District Hospital, where many of the victims were admitted, had still not put up a casualty list.

“I am looking for my uncle and aunt. They were on that bus. Are they here?” an anxious Shabek asked, pushing through the crowd at the chaotic emergency department.

No one had an answer.

Many others too waited in vain for information about family members on the bus.

Shabek then rushed to the Eastern Railway Orthopaedic Hospital, a 10-minute drive away. At the emergency counter, officials could not say if Saidul Islam Mollah and Nasima Bibi had been admitted there.

Shabek began describing his uncle, with whom he had spoken only yesterday, to the doctors who were coming out of the ground-floor operation theatre.

Still no luck. The doctors said no one of that description had been brought in. Shabek later found out from other relatives, who were still at the district hospital, that his uncle and aunt were dead.

The 35-year-old from Sankrail fainted when he heard the news. The bodies, he was told, were at the district hospital.

“How can they be dead… I spoke to my uncle just yesterday. They have three children. What will happen to them?” Shabek wept when he came to.

The scene at the district hospital’s emergency department was sombre. Weeping relatives stood in a queue to enter the first-aid room where the bodies had been kept.

Some came out with relief written on their faces because their relatives were not among the dead. Others broke down.

The hospital, severely short of hands, struggled to provide medical attention and information.

“We are doing our best. But we don’t have enough hands,” a doctor said.

“We are trying to call in more doctors,” a hospital official said.

The relatives of some of the injured wanted to take them to other hospitals for better treatment.

“I didn’t think he would be alive after what I saw on television, but my nephew is all right. We want to take him to a better hospital so he can get better care,” said Sanjoy Pal, uncle of injured passenger Monotosh Pal.