THANJAVUR: A railway gatekeeper and an unidentified man were run over by a speeding Nagercoil-Tambaram Antyodaya Express train when the former tried to save the latter at a railway gate near Papanasam railway station around midnight of Wednesday.
The deceased railway gate keeper was identified as S Rahul Kumar (30), a native of Uttar Pradesh, staying at Papanasam.
The identity of another deceased was yet to be ascertained.
According to sources, Rahul Kumar was on duty on Wednesday night at a Railway gate located between Papanasam and Sundaraperumal koil railway stations.
When he was waiting for the passage of Nagercoil-Tambaram Antyodaya Express around midnight of Wednesday, after closing the railway gate for the road traffic, a man aged around 65 years tried to cross the railway track, sources said.
As the train was approaching, Rahul Kumar ran towards the track to save the man, but the speeding train hit both of them.
In the accident, both died on the spot.
The Kumbakonam Railway police retrieved the bodies and sent them to Kumbakonam Government Hospital for post-mortem.