NEW DELHI — They were watching the bad guy go down.

On a cool Friday night in October, in an annual ritual on the Hindu calendar, an effigy of a 10-headed demon was set on fire. Firecrackers exploded brightly in the night sky. Ordinary folks were out late, some sitting on the railroad tracks, some lounging along them, trying to catch a glimpse of the spectacle. Some people were taking pictures on their phones.

No one heard the train barreling through the darkness.

At least 50 people were mowed down and killed, the police said. Emergency workers rushed to the scene, and at least 60 people were taken to area hospitals, according to Reuters.

“People present near the railway track couldn’t hear the sound of the approaching train due to the bursting crackers,” the junior railways minister, Manoj Sinha, said on local television.