The footbridge was so crammed that third-year BSc student Sampuran Ghosh, a Calcutta boy studying in Mumbai, could not find a toehold. So he turned away. The decision saved his life, he tells The Telegraph:

Moments after I had turned away from the footbridge, I heard the sound of bodies hurtling down the stairwell.

I had arrived at the foot of the overbridge to reach Elphinstone Road station, from where I planned to catch a train to Marine Lines station, which is near my college. I'm majoring in statistics from St Xavier's, Mumbai, and had a test today.

It was around 10.30am, when Elphinstone Road station is crowded with commuters headed for their offices in Lower Parel. It was raining heavily, and the footbridge -the narrowest among three in the area - was clogged with people.

Two trains had just chugged into Elphinstone Road station, and their passengers were climbing up the footbridge, one of whose exits leads to the India Bulls finance centre.

Another crowd of people was trying to climb down the footbridge to reach the platform. Among them were the vegetable vendors, whose bamboo baskets took up a lot of space.

The footbridge often shakes when large numbers climb onto it - I know because I use it regularly. Today, though, it was so jam-packed that I just couldn't get a toehold.

Eventually, I gave up and decided to hail a cab. A road journey takes longer than the 15-minute train ride to Marine Lines, but I had a test to write and couldn't take chances.

Just as I began walking away, I heard the dull sound of people tumbling down, along with what seemed a shrill, piercing cry - it was actually the combined screams of scores of panicked and crushed people.

People were hurtling down. People were running helter-skelter. People, trying to avoid the crush on the overbridge, had hauled themselves over the railing and were clinging on precariously to the parapet. People were crying for help.

As I stood, almost frozen, I heard some voices claim that a few commuters had got electrocuted by live cable lines on the overbridge, and this may have triggered the stampede.

But I could not wait any longer. Luckily, a cab was passing by and I hailed it down.

I somehow managed to regain some composure and write my test. But all the while, I kept thinking that I could well have been among the people plummeting down the stairwell, screaming in panic and agony.