A mother and her five-year-old daughter were mowed down by a train near Belur railway station, in Howrah, late on Sunday.

Usha Singh, 37, and Amisha, residents of Hyde Road, in Liluah, were returning home after visiting a relative in Belur.

While crossing the tracks, they were unmindful of the train approaching fast. Crushed under the wheels, they died on the spot around 10.25 pm, said a Government Railway Police officer.

?I was sitting near the tracks, very near to the spot where the mishap occurred,? said a vegetable vendor. ?I tried to warn them, but they were too dazed to react. The train hit them before my eyes.?

He was yet to come out of the shock of seeing the mother and her child being mowed down.

?The two were taken to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead. We have sent the bodies for post-mortem and registered an unnatural death case,? said a GRP officer.

After the bodies were taken to the hospital, Usha?s husband Ramkumar Singh was contacted. He identified the bodies. Police, however, said the husband and his neighbours would be questioned.