The train's driver claimed he honked several times and even applied emergency brakes (Representational)
Two girl students were ran over by the New Delhi-Dehradun Jan Shatabdi Express in Modinagar when they were crossing the tracks, officials said on Saturday.
The girls, identified as Priya, 17, and Shivani, 20, were residents of Nandnagari colony of Modinagar in Ghaziabad and were returning home after purchasing household goods when the incident occurred at around 4:30 PM on Friday.
According to officials of Northern Railways, the driver of the train which ran over the girls, when questioned, said that when his train was on the up line, a goods train was on the down line.
Onlookers said that the girls halted at the crossing after noticing the goods train, but failed to see the Jan Shatabdi train.
They told the police that the girls could not hear the train whistle due to the loud sound of a DJ, which was being played in a function near the railway crossing.
The driver claimed to have seen the two girls standing on the tracks where the Jan Shatabdi was passing through and in his statement he has said that he had honked several times and even applied emergency brakes, but could not stop in time to save the girls, the officials said.
The Railways also said that it has built cemented boundaries on either side of the tracks to prevent unauthorised entries.
According to information received, while Priya was in the 12th standard, Shivani was pursuing a BSc course. The bodies were handed over to the parents, outpost in-charge of government railway police (GRP) Modinagar, Sub-Inspector Baburam Singh told news agency PTI.
Following the request of their parents, the bodies of both the girls were handed over to them without conducting an autopsy, the Railways said.
Such instances are not considered as "rail accidents" by the Railways and the victims are termed as "trespassers".
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)