Iranian gallant villagers thwart rail tragedy

Gallant Iranian people have managed to thwart a possible rail tragedy in a village in Firouzkouh County of Tehran Province.

After heavy rains caused floods near a railway track on Tuesday, the residents of Mahmoudabad Village in Firouzkouh rushed to alert the driver of an upcoming train, foiling a possible catastrophe.

Their timely action helped the train driver to become aware of the danger and stop the train just in time.

The latest incident brings to minds a heroic action occurred some 60 years ago.

On the evening of a cold winter day in the 1960s, Riz-Ali Khajavi noticed a rock-fall that blocked a railway track while he was on his way home in one of the villages of East Azerbaijan Province.

In order to alert the driver of an approaching train, the man (aka Dehqan-e Fadakar or self-sacrificing farmer) took his shirt off and set fire to it after he had tied it to a stick, saving the life of hundreds of people on the train.

The heroic story is taught in primary schools of Iran.

SQ/MG