A hero Australian dad was killed trying to save his twin toddlers after their stroller rolled in front of a train, miraculously saving one of his young daughters.
Anand Runwal, 40, and his wife at the Sydney station around 12:30 p.m. Sunday when they took “their hands off the handle for a very, very short time,” police Superintendent Paul Dunstan said.
The stroller then rolled onto the tracks, with the 2-year-old girls’ dad jumping down to try to save them — as his wife screamed in horror, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The dad was trying to lift the stroller to the platform when he was struck by the train. One of his daughters was also killed, while the other was found on the tracks “largely untouched,” Dunstan said.
New South Wales Premier Christ Minns was among those praising the dad’s heroism.
“He’s just gone into parent mode and tried to save his two young daughters and in doing so it’s cost him his life,” Minns told reporters, the outlet said.
“The 2-year-old is doing well, mum is very traumatized … I hope over time they can gain some small solace knowing the father died in an extraordinary, instinctive act of bravery,” Minns said.
“That’s not going to bring him or his little daughter back but it shouldn’t go unremarked upon the face of a terrible, terrible accident,” he added.
Runwal and his wife, identified in a follow-up report as 39-year-old Poonam Runwal, were members of a tight-knit Indican community in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, the oultet said.
“I don’t know how Poonam is going to cope with what has happened,” family friend Manisha Shirodkar told reporters. “Losing a partner and a child, and a traumatic experience like this is going to impact her whole life.”
Infosys, a software company where Runwal worked for the past 12 years, issued a statement Monday.
“Our prayers are with his wife, his other child, extended family and colleagues,” the statement said. “We are providing every possible support to his family during this time of grief, and [are] also in touch with local authorities.”
Police said the family had just stepped onto the platform at Sydney’s Carlton station when the double-stroller rolled away from them.
The train, which was coming in from Cronulla and was not scheduled to stop at the Carlton station, and wasn’t able to slow down in time, striking Runwal and one of his young daughters.
“I heard a woman screaming for her life, ‘Please, please stop!’ eyewitness Lauren Langelaar told reporters. “The train couldn’t stop.”
