When two gunmen entered the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on Wednesday night and started firing indiscriminately at the people, VD Zhende, the announcer at the station kept his cool. Without even wasting a single moment, he started making announcements alerting people and cops about the firing.

The gunmen entered the CST station’s long distance train section. “They started firing indiscriminately and headed to platform no 13 and first hurled a grenade. The duo also started firing indiscriminately killing several people,” said a Government Railway Police official.

“They also shot at one Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable. The moment I saw people dragging the RPF man and heard people shouting, I started alerting people asking them to vacate the station from platform no 1,” said Zhende who was at the CST station during the complete operation. “I was also scared of gunshots outside.”

“He was also constantly alerting the GRP and the RPF, and informed them about the firing. In such circumstances, he did not panic, but did his job effectively. The casualties certainly reduced due to his presence of mind,” said Sriniwas Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson of CR. Zhende, a resident of Nalasopara, has been working with the CR for the past 18 years and was posted at the CST some five years ago.

The RPF and GRP by then had taken over the railway station. But, by then, 54 people had died in the firing, including Shashank Shinde, police inspector of the CST railway police station. “We have lost a good officer,” said Vasant Koregaonkar, DCP from the CR. The CR also lost four of its employees in the firing, including an RPF constable. Seven railway employees were reportedly injured and were admitted at the Dr BR Amdbekar Hospital.

Instead of termination of services at the CST, the railway terminated the mainline services at Byculla and Dadar and Wadala on the harbour line. Some 45 train services were disrupted during this period which resumed only after the operation was over.

The firing between the cops and the gunmen lasted for over one hour after which they fled the station premises from platform no 1 (Masjid end). They later escaped and took refuge at the Cama Hospital near Metro Cinema.

Meanwhile, the dead and injured lying in a pool of blood at the CST station were immediately rushed to St George Hospital. Dried blood on the platforms was washed off by the rail authorities.

The train services commenced around 2.30 am when the police finally gave security clearance to the railways to run the services. Five long distance trains that were delayed finally departed for their destinations- Siddheshwar Express, Pune Express, Konkan Kanya Express, Rajendranagar Express and Chennai Mail.

But a day after the incident, fear and disturbance was visible on the faces of the people. The station witnessed 25 percent passengers and the CR also instructed all the stationmasters and sweepers not to leave their offices on Wednesday night.

“After the firing started, I did not even wait to shut my shop. I immediately fled the station,” said Vijay Mati who owns a coffee shop at the CST station. “Even today, I opened my shop at 11.30 am .”