A 40-year-old Indian IT engineer, Anand Runwal, died while trying to save his twin daughters after their pram rolled onto the railway track at Carlton train station in Sydney, Australia. An oncoming train struck and killed him and one of the twins, while the other twin escaped with minor injuries. The train, not scheduled to stop at Carlton, halted shortly after the accident.
The family — Anand Runwal, his wife Poonam Runwal, and their twin daughters — had moved to Australia in October 2023 after Anand secured a job with Infosys as an IT service provider at Westpac, a financial services company in Sydney.
On Sunday afternoon, July 21, as the family was exiting a lift at the station, the pram rolled onto the rail tracks.
Witnesses reported that Anand jumped onto the tracks to rescue his daughters, but he and one of his daughters, Hinal, were struck and killed by an oncoming train.
The other daughter survived with minor injuries, after she landed between the tracks, reported the Daily Mail.
Poonam and the surviving daughter were taken to St George Hospital and are stable.
She is in shock and receiving support from family and friends in the local Indian community.
The incident is under investigation, with CCTV footage and witness accounts being reviewed.
The National Rail Safety Regulator has been notified, and a report will be prepared for the coroner. The community has come together to honour Anand’s heroism, with locals leaving flowers and messages at the station.
Anand’s childhood friend, Sreyas Gopalakrishnan Thottarath, remembered him as a joyful family man who had hoped to take his parents to Australia.
Source Agencies
