EDMONTON — As warning bells clanged, red lights flashed and witnesses recoiled from what they’d seen, one of the first to reach the spot where two teens were run down Tuesday night by an LRT train screamed: “Is anyone alive?”

It seems clear now that Delia Papastesis, trapped under the second car, was still breathing.

One man who sprinted to the scene said he and a police officer arrived moments after the train ground to a halt near 82nd Street. When the officer shone his flashlight under the train, they saw two bodies beneath the second car.

The man said another youth, a friend of two teens struck by the train, was nearby when the bodies were found, and became so distraught he had to be restrained by police.

“He was freakin’ out,” said the man, who did not want his name published. “He was saying, ‘That’s my buddy, that’s my buddy.’ ”

That buddy, Jamie Kootenay, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene, and his body lay for hours beside the tracks, covered by an orange tarp.

Dozens of police, firefighters and paramedics responded to the call, and some worked frantically to free Papastesis from under the train.

After about an hour, the 19-year-old was lifted out, placed on a stretcher and rushed to hospital, where she later died.

One witness who saw the tragedy unfold broke down in tears as she described the moments before two teens were struck down.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said she was making dinner when she heard yelling, then looked outside to see a woman running down the tracks with a man chasing her.

The witness said the man grabbed the woman from behind and pulled her down on the tracks, then laid on top of her with his full weight as the train bore down on them.

“I just remember thinking, they’re going to get up,” the woman said. “Like, ‘Get up you guys, it’s getting closer,’ and then I just started screaming. He had lots of time to get off of her.”

Homicide detectives have been called in to investigate whether the deaths were accidental or criminal, and are interviewing witnesses and examining evidence. Autopsies were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

A woman identifying herself by e-mail as Kootenay’s cousin said people who know the couple are angry about the suggestion the young man may have held his girlfriend down on the tracks.

“Jamie Kootenay didn’t hold the girl down on the tracks, he would never do such a thing, he always had a kind heart,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Grieving family members gathered Wednesday afternoon not far from the tracks, just off 82nd Street and 114th Avenue, where the two were killed. Papastesis’s sister and cousin placed bouquets of flowers at the scene.

“It’s hard for me to believe,” said Delia’s older sister, Janice Randhile. “It’s hard to know what people are saying about what happened. It was not in his character, he was always so respectful and caring.”