Kanpur: A 19-year-old polytechnic student was killed and his 18-year-old female classmate critically injured after they were hit by a goods train while sitting on a railway track in Etawah on Wednesday night.The incident occurred near Rahatpura crossing in the Civil Lines police station area, about 2km from the district headquarters. Police said they were both second-year mechanical engineering students at a city polytechnic college.The train guard said the boy was sitting in the middle of the track, while girl was at its edge. The train sounded its horn several times, but the students did not move, the guard said.Railway employees reached the spot after being alerted by the guard and informed the police. The boy died at the scene, while the girl was taken to Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, where her condition remained critical.Police said girl had left her college hostel in the evening to meet the boy. They walked towards the railway tracks, about 400 metres from the college, and sat on the Etawah-Mainpuri line, which is occasionally used by goods trains.After regaining consciousness around 10.30 am on Thursday, the girl told her family that she considered the boy her brother and that they often walked towards the railway line while talking. She said they could not notice the approaching train.The deceased, a resident of Bharthana, had been staying at his maternal grandfather’s house near IIT Chauraha in Etawah.
