Fifteen students killed by an express train here were too involved in a brawl on rail tracks to hear looming death, Indian officials said on Monday.
"The youths, who were engaged in a scuffle on the tracks, did not pay heed to shouts of railway porters or to the whistles sounded by the train driver," junior Railways Minister Naranbhai Rathwa said in the central Indian city of Bhopal.
The students alighted Sunday from one train and began exchanging blows on the tracks of the approaching express at the Sukhi Sevania station, 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Bhopal, the minister said.
"According to eyewitnesses, the youths alighted on the tracks instead of the platform and even beat up the porter rather than heeding his advice," Rathwa said after visiting the site of the grisly accident.
Those mowed down by the train's locomotive were aged between 17 and 20 years.
The impact was so enormous that many of the dismembered bodies are beyond visual recognition, officials said. Rail minister Rathwa ruled out a mandatory probe saying it was just a tragic accident.
"At the same time, authorities are initiating measures like introducing voice alarm systems at rail stations to ward off trespassers, and drivers are being asked to sound the whistle continuously while approaching stations, railway crossings and vulnerable areas," he added.
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