WATCH | Screams of the dying haunt rescuers
Locals aid passengers on crashed train but many burnt to death
Farm worker David Mokhomo was one of the first people to respond to the deadly train crash that rocked the quiet farmlands near Kroonstad, in the Free State, this week.
With others from surrounding farms, he rushed to the scene and helped save many lives, pulling passengers from the burning wreckage.
But it is those he could not save who will haunt him forever.
He told the Sunday Times that he had held the hands of some trapped women shortly before they became engulfed in flames.
"An old woman was trapped by a chair," he said. "Under another chair there was a small child, also trapped. We just couldn't help them. I held all their hands before they died."
For more than 28 years, a train has passed Nooitgedagt Geneva farm, near Kroonstad, almost every morning.
But on Thursday, just after 9am, the quiet was shattered by the screech of tearing steel and, soon after, the screams of trapped passengers...
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