A man, who lost his wife and 4-year-old son in the Morena rail tragedy, on Monday said the panic over a train fire spread so suddenly that passengers jumped off and, before he could grasp what was happening, another train ran over his family.Clothes, bags, footwear and personal belongings were scattered all over the tracks. Bodies and belongings lay strewn over a large area after the incident on Jattvibeday, Nadeem Khan said.”A few moments earlier, my wife and son were with me, and then they were gone. My family was destroyed before my eyes,” the inconsolable man said.Khan recalled scenes of chaos after the accident, with passengers screaming and searching for their relatives.His child, wife and two other women were killed when they jumped off the Khajuraho-Udaipur Intercity Express in panic following a false fire alarm and emergency chain pulling and were run over by the Patalkot Express on the adjacent tracks in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district.The deceased have been identified as Afreen (35) and her son Ashad (4), hailing from Sultan Ganj in Agra, Shakuntala Devi (60), also from Agra, and Verma Devi (58), hailing from Bikaner in Rajasthan.”Someone shouted that there was a fire in the train and people began jumping off. Before I could understand what was happening, another train ran over my wife and son before my eyes,” Khan, a resident of Agra, said, recounting the moments leading up to the accident.Khan said he was returning to Agra from Harpalpur with his family and was travelling in a general coach of the Khajuraho-Udaipur Intercity Express with his wife Afreen, 4-year-old son Ashad and his elder son.”At around 4.15 pm, shortly after the train crossed Morena and was passing between Hetampur and Dholpur near Pipri Ka Pura village, someone suddenly shouted that the train had caught fire. Panic spread immediately as the coach was overcrowded,” he said.According to Khan, someone pulled the emergency chain and the train came to a halt.”People started getting down to save themselves. My wife got off carrying our younger son in her arms. I began searching for my elder son, who had been separated from us in the crowd,” he said.”Many passengers had already reached the tracks and the surrounding area. Suddenly, the Patalkot Express, travelling from Firozpur to Seoni, came speeding on the adjacent tracks. Everything happened within seconds. Before I could do anything, my wife and son were hit by the train. My family was destroyed before my eyes,” the man said, his voice breaking with sobs.Had he not been searching for his elder son, he too might have got off the train, Khan said.”Later, we learnt that there had been no fire and it was only a rumour,” he added.An official said the loco pilot of the Patalkot Express, which was travelling at around 90 kmph, could not spot the passengers on the tracks in time because of the curve. Though emergency brakes were applied, the train could not be stopped before the impact.Jhansi Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Anirudh Kumar said preliminary inquiries had not established any fire in the train.”According to the complaint received, a woman passenger pulled the emergency chain. Her identity is being ascertained. A detailed inquiry will be conducted into the incident,” he said.Morena Collector Lokesh Kumar Jangid said sparks and smoke were reported from a coach near the locomotive close to Hetampur station, which triggered rumours of a fire and led to panic among passengers.Some passengers got off the train after the chain-pulling incident and were subsequently hit by the speeding Patalkot Express coming from the Delhi side, he said.