For Dipak Singh Chauhan, an executive housekeeper at Lilavati Hospital, it was a nightmarish experience to see bodies being flung out from the local train compartment in which the terror blast took place in the evening peak hours near suburban Santa Cruz station on Western Railway.
MUMBAI: For Dipak Singh Chauhan, an executive housekeeper at Lilavati Hospital, it was a nightmarish experience to see bodies being flung out from the local train compartment in which the terror blast took place in the evening peak hours near suburban Santa Cruz station on Western Railway.
Thirty-two-year-old Chauhan, who had boarded the ill-fated local train from Bandra, was standing at the exit in one of the bogies adjacent to the one in which the blast occurred.
As the explosion occurred, a cloud of smoke enveloped the area and reduced to zero visibility for a few seconds.
Chouhan could see faintly bodies flung outside the bogie in which the explosion occurred.
He jumped out and walked up to motorman's cabin to collect first-aid equipment. As he was a hospital employee, Chouhan took to applying first-aid himself to the injured lying on the tracks writhing in pain.
Chouhan said people living near the tracks were quite helpful and came running with bedsheets to carry the injured to the hospital in the absence of stretchers.
Chaos prevailed at Santa Cruz railway station and it was a gory sight with mutilated bodies and blood splattered on the track and injured crying for help.
However, people came together, carried the injured from the tracks to the road, cleared the way and took the injured to hospitals in autorickshaws.
Other stations where the explosions occurred -- Matunga, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Bhayendar -- also witnessed the human side of Mumbai with people voluntarily coming to the aid of the injured.
A sales executive, travelling by another train in which an explosion occurred at Matunga station, had a miraculous escape as his compartment was not damaged in the blast. He too turned a samaritan along with members of public by helping the injured.
The executive lamented lack of help from railway police and the other authorities.
VM Desai Municipal Hospital near Santa Cruz was cordoned off by police as news spread about injured being brought in for treatment. Only relatives were allowed inside and others, including media, were prevented from entering the premises.
The relatives of the injured complained of lack of facilities and shifted their injured kin to other hospitals – KEM, Nanavati and Guru Nanak.
Non-governmental organisations were out on the streets and were distributing biscuits to the passengers stranded at the railway stations.
Here too, the human side of Mumbai was visible with drivers of private cars and taxis voluntarily transporting stranded commuters to their destinations.
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