A six-month-old baby tragically drowned in a flooded stream by a railway track when it slipped from its mother’s arms after she climbed down from a stopped train to walk to the station.
Little Rishika Rumal lost her life while her mum, Yogita, and her brother-in-law were taking her to a hospital in Mumbai, India, for a health check-up.
They had been passengers on the train but when heavy rains interrupted the service it stopped, so they decided to try and walk down the railway track.
To do so they had to go over the waterway as there was no other way.
Sadly, as Yogita was carrying the infant while going over the swollen stream, the child slipped and fell straight in.
All trace was lost and Rishika is believed to have drowned.
Shocked witnesses filmed the moment a woman – presumably Yogita – was seen crying inconsolably and pointing towards the flooded stream below.
In the video – recorded by other commuters on the local train that had been halted on the tracks – a few people can be heard saying that the woman’s baby had fallen into the water and been carried away by the strong current.
The local fire department has already begun an operation aiming to locate the baby.
According to the divisional manager of Central Railway’s Mumbai division, Rajnish Kumar Goyal, the tracks were re-opened for traffic around 6pm, just half an hour after Rishika died.
Goyal added that the train service was stopped as a precautionary measure after the water reached eight inches above the track level.
The severe downpour led to schools in the local area being cancelled and hundreds of families living in lower regions had to be evacuated from their homes.
Other families were advised to remain at home until the rains subside.
