Officials rushed to extricate the man alive, using a hammer and gas torch to break the platform and even gave him oxygen, but he succumbed to his injuries

A 43-year-old man met with a gruesome death after he got trapped in the gap between the platform and the footboard of the train he was on. The man fell in the gap as he tried to alight from the still moving train, and a 30-minute rescue operation was launched to extricate him alive on Monday.

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In a 30-minute operation to rescue KV Chandran, officials had to break two of the cement sheets.

The Mira Road-resident, KV Chandran, was on a train from Thiruvananthapuram, where he had gone to drop his wife. Upon arriving in the city, Chandran was supposed to resume his duties as the operations manager at Shogan Organic Company in Andheri.

According to the police, he was on a Garib Rath Express (Kochuveli-Mumbai LTT), which arrived at Thane railway station at 11:22 am. “Around 11:25 am, we received a call and a few railway officials, along with passengers and railway police, reached the spot at platform number 8 to carry out a rescue operation,” said a senior official from the station manager’s office.

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In the meanwhile, he was provided an oxygen mask to sustain him

Half-hour operation

The bottom half of Chandran’s body was completely under the train and he was dragged about 50 metres before the train came to a halt. As there was very little space to manoeuvre, the officials took a hammer along to break the cement sheets on the platform.

“We also called for a gas cutter, which delayed the operation slightly. We broke two cement sheets and rescued the victim. He was shifted to Thane civil hospital at 11:55 am,” said an official. However, Chandran was declared dead 20 minutes later.

“He suffered severe injuries on his head and multiple injuries on his body, leading to his death,” said a police officer from the Thane GRP, which registered an accidental death report in the matter.

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During the investigation railway officials found one of his bags near the stairs to the Foot Over Bridge and suspect it rolled there when Chandran fell. They also suspect that he tried to get down without waiting for the train to stop because he had seen the stairs and didn’t want to walk back to them.

“He had a bag on his back and a bag in his hand containing a huge jackfruit in it. We suspect he tried to get down when he saw the staircase. He may have got stuck in the gap due to the luggage. We tried our best to save him, we also provided him with an oxygen mask during the rescue operation, but nothing worked,” said another official.

The Railway Police Force called Chandran’s colleague, Mangesh Hande to inform him of the incident. “We had some difficulty in contacting his relatives and there was a language barrier as well. With the help of an office boy, we informed his family of the death and his brother took a flight here,” said Mangesh.

Chandran’s brother, Prabhat Karan, came from Thiruvananthapuram to claim the body and said Chandran’s wife had not been informed yet. “My brother had gone to drop her to their hometown on February 3 and he left from there on Sunday. We have not informed her about the incident and told her only that he has suffered injuries. We will take the body to Kerala by plane,” said Prabhat.