HYDERABAD: It was bolt from the blue for thousands of passengers who had gathered at the Secunderabad railway station on Friday, set to travel to various parts of the country. All of a sudden, hundreds of protestors stormed into the station and all hell broke loose. They began breaking window glasses of trains and then proceeded to some afire. Frightened by the situation, passengers who were sitting inside the trains left their luggage behind and ran out shrieking in fear.
Parents were seen rushing out holding on to their young children, terror writ large on their faces. People fled through the nearest exit they could find as the rampaging youth set fire to East Coast Express. Mahesh Singh, who works in a stall in railway station said that many fleeing passengers fell down while rushing outside. “Everyone was scared when huge flames of smoke were engulfing the bogies and thought there was a fire accident,” he said.
As riots raged inside the railway station, restaurants downed shutters which exacerbated the passengers’ problems as they could not get food or water for long hours. A family of four - Siddharth Gosavi, Kaushalya Gosavi along with their two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son who were awaiting the arrival of Konark Express said they were shocked to see flames suddenly leaping out of trains stationed on platforms.
They immediately took their belongings and left the station in a hurry as they were afraid of what would happen next with the police trying to quell the mob and the protestors intensifying their acts of arson.The trouble inside the railway station scared the small-time merchants outside as well. Auto drivers, and flower sellers ran helter-skelter with the situation inside the railway station getting out of control. The auto drivers took sent their vehicles racing outside the station while the people who arrived to catch a train went back sensing the volatile situation inside.