Cochin Shipyard blast: ‘It’s really a rebirth. I’m lucky I was able to escape’

Five people were killed and seven injured following an explosion in an under-repair vessel at the Cochin Shipyard

File Photo of Cochin Shipyard. | Express Photo Services

KOCHI: Their hands shivered with fear. Voices faltered while speaking. They were injured and in trauma. But grateful to be alive.“It is really a rebirth. I’m lucky I was able to escape. I could easily have been one of those who lost their lives,” said 28-year-old Tintu Joseph, a welder at the Cochin Shipyard and one of the seven persons injured in the explosion that rocked the shipyard on Tuesday after an ONGC ship caught fire. As per reports, of the seven workers, one was in critical condition. The injured were admitted to two private hospitals.

All of them were traumatised by the mishap which killed five of their colleagues. Tintu suffered minor injuries on his hand in the impact of the blast. “At first, I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. I fell down due to the impact of the blast. Upon regaining my consciousness, all I could see was smoke. It was suffocating. Nothing else was visible.

It was not after a few minutes that I found the ladder to escape from the main dock. I was lucky,” said Tintu, who also found time to switch off the power inside the ship when the accident happened. He was discharged from the hospital later. UP native Rajan Ram said it felt like a bomb blast. “The entire ship shook. I felt a bomb went off,” said Rajan.