Bhubaneswar, March 16: Two first-year students of IIT, Bhubaneswar, a girl and a boy, were run over by a train under the Satya Nagar overbridge, about 100 metres from their college, this evening.

Andhra Pradesh residents B. Tejaswi and D. Dinesh, both 19 years of age, were run over by the Khurda-Kharagpur Express while they were trying to cross the tracks.

While Tejaswi, who was a native of Srikakulam district, was studying electrical science, Dinesh was a student of mechanical science. There was speculation that the deaths could have been a case of suicide but the theory was rubbished both by the police and the college authorities.

The two students were returning from the college after attending their classes when the mishap took place.

Sources said the two, who were holding hands, had crossed one of the three parallel running railway tracks under the bridge in a bid to crossover to Laxmisagar from Satyanagar.

However, even as they were standing in the middle of the second track, two trains were passing on the tracks on both sides of them, including the one they had already crossed. As people who saw them standing in the middle started shouting and asked them to turn back, they retreated in haste and got hit by the train on the first track.

Sources said Dinesh was the first to be hit and was dragged under the wheels. They said the girl would have been saved if she was not holding Dinesh’s hand. She, too, was dragged under the train.

Mukund Barik, who had witnessed the mishap, said: “They got scared. Had they been a little more careful they would have been alive now.”

The Government Railway Police registered a case of unnatural death and sent the bodies for post mortem. GRP inspector-in-charge, S.R Kar said it was not a case of suicide though post the mortem report was awaited.

“The train driver gave a memo that two youths were hit by the train around 4.45pm. We have sent the bodies for autopsy,” he said.

Registrar of IIT, Bhubaneswar, B.K. Ray said: “It was an accident.”

IIT officials said most students crossed the tracks to reach their hostels in Keshura.