A big presence on stage, he was always surrounded by fellow musicians on Indian instruments like the harmonium and the three-stringed sarangi, and a jamboree of vocalists providing the drone of the tanpura.

"The electric barrier would sometimes go up and sometimes it wouldn’t," said Soubhagya Ranjan Sarangi, 25, a pharmacist with a shop close to the railway crossing.

Niranjan Sarangi, a 66-year-old retired school teacher who spends many evenings sitting near the crossing with friends, was there at the time of the crash.

No bodies were found in the engine and the work was completed on Sunday morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, director-general of fire and emergency services in Odisha.

“It was a devastating scene, because the train was at high speed, full speed,” said Sudhanshu Sarangi, the chief of Odisha’s fire service, who had arrived at the scene.