Two women escaped with serious injuries after they were trapped in between two compartments while they attempted to board a moving train at the Colombo Fort Railway Station on Friday evening.
The incident took place as the express train that was heading for Kandy slowed down on platform number 6 at the Fort Railway Station to board passengers.
The two women were a part of larger rush hour crowd that was waiting to board the same train prior to the upcoming weekend when they slipped their footing and were sandwiched between two carriages, railway officials said.
The pair was later rescued in a delicate operation carried out by volunteers, railway officials, fire brigade personnel and medical teams before being driven in ambulances to hospital.
Discipline among railway commuters is near zero where a sizeable number is known to be ticketless travellers where checks are rare and few in between.
It was only the other day that the authorities warned fun-loving tourists to refrain from travelling on the footboard of trains after several recent accidents were documented.
Many tourists opt to ride the footboard mainly on upcountry trains for selfies and other thrills where the speed is reduced to a snail’s crawl owing to the steep mountains the trains have to navigate.
