‘Wailing for help’: passengers and bystanders tell of India train crash horror

Relatives tell of agony of searching for survivors among what one called heaps of bodies' as rescue activities draw to a close

The carriages from three trains sat piled high in an entangled wreck. Some lay sideways, while others had been thrown so high into the air on impact that they had fallen back to earth twisted and upside down.

A line of dozens of bodies covered in white sheets were laid out next to the wreckage waiting for vehicles - ambulances, local cars, even tractors - to take them away to local hospitals. Passengers' possessions lay scattered around them, shoes and toys and thrown-open suitcases.