Shyamal Chakraborty, 38, became a father for the first time on Tuesday. Two days later, he had a miraculous escape on the Metro Railway tracks while on his way to see his baby daughter and wife in a nursing home.

At 11.27am on Thursday, Chakraborty toppled over — he later claimed he had suffered a sudden dizzy spell — the edge of the platform at Central station just as a south-bound train pulled in.

The Dum Dum-Tollygunge train appeared to run over Chakraborty before the driver could slam the brakes.

As a cry went up from the crowd, the Metro officials first switched off power supply to the third rail. Then, the cops were called. A team from Bowbazar police station rushed in.

Chakraborty lay still between the track and the platform. When Metro Rail officials and the police managed to drag him out around 11.51am, he was in a daze but fully conscious.

“He got wedged in the space between the train and the platform. That saved his life. He was injured in the fall, but his escape was miraculous,” said a senior Metro official at Central station.

Metro services were disrupted for around 40 minutes till just after noon.

Chakraborty, undergoing treatment at Medical College and Hospital, suffered fractures in six ribs. “He needs complete bed rest or else a broken rib may puncture a lung,” said an official at the hospital.

A resident of Hakimpara, in Siliguri, Chakraborty had come to Calcutta three weeks ago to visit his wife, who was staying with her parents at Mahestala.His father-in-law, Aloke Roy Chowdhury, said Chakraborty, who got married in 2004, was under psychiatric treatment for unstable behaviour over the past few months.

On Thursday, desperate to visit his wife and baby girl, Chakraborty had sneaked out of his in-laws’ house against medical advice.

“At the Metro station, I suddenly felt dizzy and fell,” Chakraborty told Metro from his hospital bed. He went silent after that.

Witnesses recounted seeing a man keel over just as a train pulled in. “He did not jump, he just seemed to collapse and topple on to the tracks,” said a passenger.

“Our preliminary investigation suggests the man fell on the tracks by accident,” added Ajay Ranade, deputy commissioner of police (central).