Passengers of Himgiri Express at Patna Junction on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 2: The bloodstained roof of Himgiri Express (12332) will haunt Manish Kumar each time he boards a train in future.

Manish was a witness to the accident in which more than 25 youths were killed yesterday at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh. All of them were sitting on top of the train. Their heads were crushed when the train was passing through a low over-bridge.

After the train rolled into Patna Junction today, its shock-stricken passengers narrated their experience with tears tickling down their cheeks.

Manish told The Telegraph: “I have never seen such a thing in my life. The whole ceiling roof was smeared in blood. Many youths were killed. The driver stopped the train after it had travelled around 6km.”

He said: “More than five lakh youths from 11 states had gone to Bareilly to submit the forms for the job of Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force. The recruitment was cancelled at the eleventh hour and the police asked the youths to vacate the city as soon as possible. Finding ‘no room’ in compartments, several youths sat on the roof of the coaches.”

Sikandar Yadav from Jamui was another eyewitness to the incident. “The accident occurred at the Hathaurda railway overbridge near Mohammadabad crossing in Shahjahanpur, 60km from Bareilly. There was very little gap between the roof of the coach and the bottom of the overbridge. By the time youths saw the bridge approaching, it was too late. Many of them were crushed to death instantly,” he said.

The voice of Pankaj Kumar from Gaya district started trembling as he recalled the moments. “I managed to enter one of the coaches of Himgiri Express. After the train started moving towards Shahjahanpur, I saw some ITBP aspirants coming down from the top of the coaches. I didn’t realise what had happened until I saw blood dropping on my shirt.”

He added: “Following the accident, a mob torched the AC coach that was next to the second class compartment on which the youths were crushed. At least two coaches of the train were set on fire by the mob at Shajahanpur.”

Many passengers complained they were forced to sit on the roof by the police and the Uttar Pradesh administration. “When we told the police officers that the train was packed with passengers and there was no space left, they asked us to climb on to the roof of the train. It was only because of the fear of the police and the security personnel that hundreds of students went up there,” said Abhijit Das, a student from Calcutta.

Some passengers blamed mismanagement for the accident. Others accused the security personnel for it.

“The security men were just not willing to listen to us. We kept on requesting them to arrange for an alternative but they said, ‘none of the ITBP aspirants need to a book ticket’. That’s why we are travelling without ticket,” said Chandan Kumar of Jamui district.

The train was delayed by over 12 hours as a result of the accident. The compartment that was set on fire was detached from the train.