A railway constable’s quick thinking saved the life of a woman in West Bengal’s Howrah after she slipped and fell while trying to board a train on Wednesday morning. The incident was captured on a CCTV camera at the Howrah Station Old Complex station.
At 10.50 am, 40-year-old Fatima Khatoon and her relative are seen running to climb on the Howrah-Tarakeswar Local as it begins to leave Platform no 4. The two rush and try to get into the train. Fatima is seen briefly hanging from the train door. In a hurry to get inside the train, her relative then pushes her into the train door. The sudden push makes her lose balance and she slips and falls on the platform.
As the train speeds up, she is caught in the gap between the train and the platform even as her relative tries to pull her from going under the train.
Seeing this, Railway Head Constable LK Bouri, who was posted nearby, sprints towards the two and immediately began pulling her out. Within seconds, the policeman pulls her by the arm, away from the speeding train, saving her life. The CCTV footage also show several passengers on the platform running to help the policeman as he tried to save Fatima.
Eastern Railways commended the policeman for his quick thinking. “The miraculous instant act of the on-duty Eastern Railway’s RPF Head Constable, L.K Bouri of RPF/Post/Howrah North, the life of the lady passenger was saved by pulling him out at the time when he was about to fell in the gap between platform and the moving train,” it said in a statement.
The railways also said the passenger thanked the constable for his help and was safely put on another train to her destination.