Heavy atmosphere at Bhairab Health Complex as families wait to collect bodies of train collision victims

No one had ever seen such scenes at the Bhairab Health Complex. Outside, sirens of ambulances kept ringing. Inside, the walls of the health centre echoed the cries of people waiting to take the dead body of their loved ones home.

Soon after the Egarosindhur Express collided with a freight train near the Bhairab rail station in Kishoreganj, killing at least 17 and injuring many, the victims of the accident were rushed to the health complex. 

Shanti Rani Shil, wife of Sabuj Shil, was wailing with short intervals. She was losing and gaining consciousness repeatedly while waiting to take home the dead body of her husband, who died in the tragic train accident.

Riding the Egarosindhur Express, Sabuj, 48, was on his way to Narsingi to see his daughter Shampa Bishwas when the accident took place, killing him immediately.

"Shil was a barber and lived with his wife in a rented house at Rani Bazar. He was the only earning member of the family," Hridoy Shil, a relative of the deceased, said.

Dozens more members of families of the victim's are still crowded in the health complex. Everyone had either lost or was in fear of losing their loved ones. 

The collision of a passenger train and the freight train in Bhairab happened as the latter did not obey the rail signal, the Bangladesh Railway has said following preliminary investigation.

The accident took place soon after the Egarosindhur Express left the Bhairab station for Dhaka.

Two coaches of the Egarosindhur Express were overturned after the impact.