KALLAKURICHI: A 16-year-old Class 11 student was electrocuted at Ulundurpet Railway Station on Sunday afternoon after touching a high-voltage overhead power cable while trying to take a selfie.
According to railway police officials, the student, identified as N Sathishkumar of Ulundurpet, had gone to the railway station with his friends. He climbed onto the top of a tanker coach of a goods train halted at the fourth platform and came in contact with the high-voltage electric wire above.
The goods train, which had delivered molasses to an alcohol factory in Virudhachalam, had been stationed at the Ulundurpet Railway Station for the past three weeks.
Railway staff and his friends rescued Sathishkumar and rushed him to the Government Villupuram Medical College Hospital in Mundiyampakkam for treatment. A railway police official said, “The boy has sustained around 50% burn injuries and his condition remains critical.”
Police sources said this was the second such incident involving the same goods train. On October 6, a man identified as M Ilangovan (48) from Sivaganga was also electrocuted after climbing on the same train in an inebriated condition.
Local residents have urged the railway authorities to move the goods train. “The train was earlier stationed in Virudhachalam and later brought here. It has been halted for over two weeks and has already caused two incidents. The railways must remove it,” residents said.
