Horrific scenes at the site near Pirot where a train hit migrants: Body bags, backpacks, shirts, blankets...

Two still unidentified men were killed last night on the Nis-Dimitrovgrad railway near the Pirot village of Gradiste when a freight train hit a group of migrants. Another three escaped unharmed because they managed to leave the tracks when they saw the train coming from the direction of Dimitrovgrad, traveling towards Pirot.

Emergency medical services from Pirot intervened at the scene of the accident, but could only pronounce the two victims dead.

"Last night at 8:50 p.m., we received a report of an accident, that is, that a train had hit several people. Our team went to the site and noted the death of two unidentified people, who are assumed to be foreign nationals. Nobody else was hurt, so our intervention ended quickly. We don't know how many other people were on the rail tracks along with the victims, but we learned that they were not alone," said Predrag Ciric, this medical service's chief technician.

He explained that this is not the first time that migrants trying to reach western Europe through this region have died or have been injured.

"Foreign citizens were killed here before but those were accidents involving passenger vehicles, this is the first time a train has killed them. We have a lot of work to do around them (migrants), they come hungry, exhausted with injuries caused by long-term walking, and there are more and more of them. We provide help to everyone, regardless of the fact that they are not our citizens," said Ciric.

The horrific accident happened at the entrance to the village of Gradiste but a few hundred meters away from the nearest homes, so none of the locals heard or saw anything.

"I found out about the migrants dying this morning watching TV. I really don't know what happened last night. They pass through here all the time, they often go along the railroad or along the highway, wherever there are lights. We never had any problems with him, I'm not afraid of them because they don't bother me, nor do I bother them," local man Acko Milosevic said.

The scenes at the site of the accident are distressing: backpacks, clothes, socks, sleeping bags, water bottles and other belongings of the victims left scattered next to the tracks. Also left there are black plastic bags the bodies were covered until a funeral parlor workers took them over.

In the center of Pirot, we came across hundreds of migrants who commented on the accident in which two of their companions died.

"We heard that two people got killed by a train, but we don't know who they are. We all follow the same route, enter Turkey and then via Bulgaria to Serbia. We often move along the railroad because that's easier, given that we go on foot. We traveled 15 days to get here, it's very hard for us, but our goal is to reach Europe. My intention is to go to France," said Mohamed Fatih from Afghanistan.

Another migrant complained that all along the way they had problems with the police in the countries were passing through, but that the situation is different in Serbia.

"They beat us, mistreated us before we arrived here. The police here are good to us, we don't have any problems with them," said a man who introduced himself as a soldier from Afghanistan who escaped from the Taliban.

Serbian Railways confirmed that an accident occurred on the railroad between Dimitrovgrad and Sukovo when a freight train hit a group of people who were moving along the tracks.

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(Telegraf.rs)