Young boy 'sucked' out of train

A child was stabilised and taken to hospital with serious injuries when he was “sucked out” of a train in a remote part of Shongweni.

Durban - A child was stabilised and taken to hospital with serious injuries when he was “sucked out” of a train in a remote part of Shongweni on Wednesday.

Chris Botha of Netcare 911 said paramedics received a call about a child who had been seriously injured after falling out of a train near the Delville Wood Train Station in the Shongweni Valley.

Reports indicated that the 7-year-old boy had been riding to school on the train.

The doors of the train had apparently been prevented from closing and the boy had stood in the entrance while the train was moving fast down the line.

As the train entered a tunnel the wind caused the child to be sucked out and he struck his head against the concrete wall and fell to the ground.

With severe injuries the child managed to use his school tie as a makeshift bandage.

He then tried to crawl out of the tunnel to get help.

Botha said the boy was fortunate that a group of off-road bikers had gone for a ride in the rural area and found him lying next to the tracks.

They put a call out to SA Can (the Community Action Network) who dispatched Netcare 911 paramedics and their rescue unit.

They stabilised the critically injured boy and realised they would not be able to take him to hospital by ambulance owing to the bad condition of the road. The boy was then flown by a Red Cross helicopter to a specialised hospital in Durban.

The Mercury