Andhra Pradesh: Train selfie gives shock to boy

Rajahmundry: A BTech student nearly got electrocuted when he tried to take a selfie standing atop a train engine parked in a railway yard in Rajahmundry on Tuesday. He ended up in hospital with 60 per cent burns.

Kanumuri Sai Santosh Varma, 19, a student of Gitam University in Visakhapatnam, had entered the railway yard along with his friends to explore it. They had alighting from Simhadri Express on their way to attend a wedding at Nidadavole in West Godavari.

Varma climbed atop the “dead” engine and began taking pictures, unmindful of the 25,000 KV power line passing overhead. However, he was close to the wires; he was flung down to the ground by the shock and suffered burns.

Varma was initially rushed to the Government General Hospital and later to a private hospital where he is being treated in the ICU. Doctors described his burns as serious.

According to his cousin Sunil, Varma stays with his grandparents as his father works in Dubai. “His family have been given just a gist of the incident as we fear the news may give them a shock,” Sunil said.

Station master B. Sarma said, “The students were not supposed to enter railway property and their action amounts to trespass.”

Railway Protection Force inspector N. Suryanarayana said, “As soon as we receive a complaint from the railway authorities, we will book a case.”