Rourkela: Four Bol Bam devotees died after being hit by a train on the railway bridge over the Brahmani river near Panposh railway station, about 3 km from Rourkela in Odisha’s Sundargarh district, on Sunday night.
According to sources, seven members of a family of Bhilai in Chhattisgarh had come to pour water at Vedvyas Temple near Rourkela on the third Monday of the Odia calendar month Shravana.
After arriving at Jharsuguda railway station, they boarded the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Inter City Express and reached Panposh railway station. The incident took place while they were heading towards Vedvyas Temple by foot on the railway tracks of the Brahmani bridge.
While four members were run over by the train, the remaining three managed survive by holding onto the side wall of the bridge.
The incident took place between 11 pm and 11.30 pm, railway sources said.
On being information, Government Railway Police and a team of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) rushed to the spot.
While two bodies were found on the railway tracks, the ODRAF personnel launched a search operation to retrieve those of the two members, who fell off the bridge into the river after the collision.
The bodies of the two deceased, identified as Nitesh Das and his son Lachi Das, are being kept inside the morgue of the Ispat General Hospital in Rourkela for postmortem. Those missing are Nitesh’s wife Jamuna and his father-in-law Rambrik Saw.
The three family members, who had survived the mishap, told the media that they sell sarees and other dress materials in Jajpur district.
In another incident, a Bol Bam devotee went missing in Mahanadi river while collecting water from a ghat near Jhula Baba Math under Tirtol police limits in Jagatsinghpur district in the early hours of Monday.
Two Bol Bam devotees were collecting water when one of them slipped into deep waters. When he shouted for help, another devotee tried to rescue him but he too was swept away by the strong river current. Some locals present at the ghat immediately jumped into the river and managed to rescue one among them.
Meanwhile, a fire brigade team rushed to the spot and started the search operation.
Till reports last came in, the operation was still on.
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