Shocked commuters have recalled a panicked mum’s frantic cries for help moments before a passing train hit a pram that fell onto the tracks, killing her partner and one of her little girls in a freak accident.
Onlookers watched on horrified as the double pram with two-year-old twins inside fell from the platform onto the tracks at Carlton train station in Sydney’s south about 12.25pm on Sunday.
The twins’ father, 40, jumped down from the platform in a heroic attempt to rescue them.
A train passing through the station struck and killed the father and one of the girls.
The twins’ mother, 39, was heard standing helplessly on the platform screaming ‘Save my babies’ seconds before the impact.
The second girl miraculously escaped uninjured, despite being trapped underneath the train.
Emergency responders arrived on scene within minutes and heard the surviving toddler’s cries before they found her.
Harrowing CCTV footage (pictured) captured the St George locals walking past a grocery store just minutes before they arrived at the station
Carlton train station was cordoned off for the rest of the day in wake of the tragic accident
The little girl was plucked to safety and and handed to with her distraught mother on the platform before the pair were taken St George Hospital.
Shocked commuters have been left reeling by the tragedy.
‘I knew it was bad straight away,’ Grant Azzopardi recalled.
‘I heard the train go past and I heard the lady scram for her life, ‘please stop stop,”
‘The train couldn’t stop.’
Lauren Langelaar added: ‘She (the mother) was on the platform screaming the husband’s name.’
‘We could only hear one kid crying, not two.’
Haunting footage captured the Kogarah family heading out on a Sunday outing just minutes before the tragedy.
Seven minutes prior to the accident, the family were seen walking past the shops towards a pedestrian crossing.
The father was in charge of the pram as his partner held a trolley bag.
She was seen glancing at a grocery store before they crossed the road headed towards the train station.
The family then used an elevator to access the platform.
The local Indian community has rallied behind the mother and surviving child, who arrived from India to Australia in October last year, after the father found a new job in Sydney, reported Nine News.
Miraculously, one of the twin girls was found alive under the train
The local Indian community has rallied behind the family (pictured) who came from India to Australia in October last year, after the father found a job in Sydney
Sydney Trains announced on Sunday night that T4 trains were returning to normal, ahead of the the start of the working week.
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragic deaths has been launched, with police checking the speed the train was travelling.
It’s understood, a freak gust of wind may have blown the pram off the platform and into the path of the oncoming train.
The train was travelling from Cronulla to the city at the time and was not due to stop at Carlton Station.
The station remained closed on Sunday night.
NSW Police Superintendent Paul Dunstan said the parents appeared to have taken their hands off the pram for a ‘very short period of time’ when it rolled towards the tracks.
Mr Dunstan said police were investigating what caused the pram to roll and said it could have been something as simple as a ‘gust of wind’.
He said the father had ‘gone into parent mode to save his two young daughters’ after realising the train had gone onto the tracks.
‘It was a heroically brave act as a dad…and it’s cost him his life,’ he said.
NSW premier Chris Minns, who lives within 100m the station, said the father died while performing an ‘extraordinary, instinctual act of bravery’.
‘He gave his own life to try and save his children,’ he said.
Mr Minns described the incident as a ‘terrible, terrible tragedy’ for the surviving family members and first responders.
Police arrived just minutes after receiving the a triple-zero call and could ‘hear crying’ coming from underneath the carriage.
Mr Dunstan said it was ‘good luck more than anything’ that the young girl was able to escape the tragedy relatively unharmed.
‘She was sort of in between the tracks (because of) the way that she had fallen and was largely untouched,’ he said.
Mr Dunstan said the mother was ‘obviously very traumatised’.
‘[She is] clearly in a state of shock and struggling with what’s happened today,’ he said.
Emergency responders were seen at the station two hours after the incident as they began the gruelling task of removing the bodies from underneath the train.
NSW Police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious and officers are investigating the circumstances surrounding the cause of the deaths of the father and his daughter (pictured officers at the station)
Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said all relevant information, including security footage, had been handed to police to aid their investigation.
Mr Longland said the train wasn’t stopping at the station enroute to Bondi Junction.
‘(The train) was approaching the station with caution, that’s how our drivers are instructed to drive in order that they can make sure that there are no incidents on the platform,’ he said.
‘These sorts of incidents are incredibly rare, but clearly, the outcomes are absolutely tragic.’
Mr Longland said Sydney Trains was working to have regular services restored by the start of the working week on Monday morning.
He added that the train driver and other staff were being supported.
A commuter reportedly attempted to wave down the driver to alert him to the danger, but was unsuccessful.
A passenger on the fifth carriage of the train told Seven News that, while he did not see the aftermath, it was ‘disturbing’ that children were involved.
All passengers were evacuated before police established a crime scene (pictured) and halted further services between Wolli Creek and Hurstville stations
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