Pictured: Heroic father who died trying to save twin daughters when their pram fell onto train tracks in front of horrified mother – as CCTV shows moments before tragedy that also left one of the two-year-old girls dead

A heroic father who died while trying to rescue his twin toddlers when their pram rolled onto the tracks at a Sydney train station has been pictured.

Anand Runwal, 40, saw the stroller fall off the platform and instantly leapt down to try to save his two-year-old daughters before a train struck and killed him and one of the twins.

Horrifying CCTV footage shows the moments before the pram toppled onto the tracks at Carlton train station in Sydney at about 12.25pm on Sunday, and into the path of the oncoming train.

One of the little girls survived only ‘through good luck’ after she landed between the rails, police said, and was ‘largely untouched’ by the train that apparently passed above her on its way to central Sydney.

Mr Runwal’s distraught wife Poonam had to be held back by a passerby in the aftermath of the tragedy and asked paramedics ‘where is my husband and child?’

The pram, which was carrying two-year-old twin girls, rolled onto the railway tracks at Carlton train station in Sydney’s south on Sunday

Witness Lauren Langelaar told Daily Mail Australia how the surviving girl – who went under the train – had ‘hardly a scratch’ on her when she was eventually reunited with her distraught mother. The girl was released from hospital on Monday morning.

Ms Langelaar was working across the road when the tragedy unfolded. She ran to the platform after hearing the mother’s screams for help.

‘I ran out to help the mother because I could just hear her screaming while looking down onto the tracks,’ Ms Langelaar said.

‘It all happened very quickly. I was down on the platform helping the mother try and scream out to her children and husband under the train.’

Ms Langelaar said a Sydney Trains worker, who was on the platform, called emergency services and explained they could ‘only hear one child’ crying.

When police arrived, they told Ms Langelaar to hold the mother back while officers jumped onto the tracks.

Miraculously, one of the twin girls was pulled from underneath the train and escaped the accident ‘with hardly a scratch on her’.

‘As I sat her down, the little girl got pulled out of under the train with hardly a scratch on her, she was just crying,’ Ms Langelaar said.

One woman, Lauren Langelaar, ran to the platform after hearing the mother’s screams and had to restrain her as emergency services looked for her husband and children 

The twins’ father heroically jumped onto the tracks to try and save his daughters but was struck by a train passing through, killing him and one of the little girls

Harrowing CCTV footage showed the family just minutes before the tragic accident 

Mr Runwal and his wife Poonam moved from India to Sydney with their twin daughters in October 2023 after he secured a job at an IT firm in North Sydney

She added the mum ‘begged’ paramedics to hand over her little girl so that she could hold her but was initially denied as they assessed the toddler’s injuries.

‘She refused at first for paramedics, to check her out, she just wanted to hold her [daughter],’ Ms Langelaar said.

‘Then she continued to yell out, “Where is my husband and other child?”.’

Ms Langelaar said paramedics continued to assess the little girl while she was in her mother’s arms as she ‘didn’t seem to be hurt’ and only had a ‘slight bump on the back of her head’.

The couple moved with their daughters from India to Australia in October 2023 after he secured a job at an IT firm.

A school friend of Mr Runwal shared a tribute to him and his family on social media. 

‘Dear friends, it is with a heavy heart that I share the tragic news of the untimely passing of Anand Runwal ( From 1999 Batch) and his daughter,’ Sreyas Gopalakrishnan Thottarath said.

‘Our deepest condolences go out to their family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.’

The parents had taken a lift down to the station platform and as they exited, they took ‘their hands off the pram for a very, very short period of time’, New South Wales police superintendent Paul Dunstan said.

‘Whether it’s a gust of wind or – we’re not quite sure – but it appears that the pram has instantly started to roll in the direction of the train lines,’ he told a news conference.

A pram carrying twin two-year-old girls rolled into the path of an oncoming train in Sydney on Sunday

One of the little girls survived only ‘through good luck’ after she landed between the rails when the pram fell off a platform at southern Sydney’s Carlton railway station

Police and emergency services arrived within a few minutes of being alerted and were able to see the pram under the train, which had slowed on approach but was not scheduled to stop at the station.

‘You could hear crying coming from underneath the train,’ the police superintendent said.

Though one of the children was unharmed, the other girl and her 40-year-old father had been killed.

The father had ‘just gone into parent mode’ and tried to save his daughters, Dunstan said.

‘In doing so it’s cost him his life, but it’s an incredibly brave and heroic act by the dad.’

The mother and her surviving daughter were taken to the local St. George Hospital, and were said to be in a stable condition.

The 39-year-old mother was ‘in a state of shock and struggling with what’s happened’ while being supported by family and friends in their local Indian community, Dunstan said.

New South Wales premier Chris Minns, who lives within 100m of the station, said the father died while performing an ‘extraordinary, instinctual act of bravery’.

‘He gave his own life to try and save his children,’ he said.

Mr Minns described the incident as a ‘terrible, terrible tragedy’ for the surviving family members and first responders.

Police and emergency services arrived within a few minutes of being alerted and were able to see the pram under the train

Though one of the children was unharmed, the other girl and her 40-year-old father had been killed

The Premier did not rule out introducing new measures to train platforms to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.

‘We’ll work with NSW trains and police inquiries and if changes need to be made we’ll make them,’ he said.

‘It’s too early to say, but I don’t want to close the door on any changes we could make.

‘Train stations can be dangerous places and we all need to be cogniscent of that.’