Railways today said they could do nothing to avert the mishap involving ITBP job aspirants in Uttar Pradesh as repeated announcements made to discourage them from travelling atop trains proved ineffective.

"Travelling atop trains is unlawful and is fraught with danger. We tried to get them down, made repeated announcements at the stations but people did not come down," Northern Railway General Manager S K Budhalakoti said.

He told reporters that electricity supply to the overhead wire was also stopped between Bareilli and Alamnagar -- just before Lucknow -- to prevent the travellers from coming in contact with the high tension wires above.

But beyond that the Railways could do little as the crowd simply kept swelling packed trains, he said.

Fourteen youths travelling atop the Himgiri Express were killed when they were hit by an over-bridge near Shahjahanpur yesterday while another ITBP job-seeker died when he fell from the Triveni Express in Hardoi district. The toll climbed to 19 today with four more persons succumbing to injuries.

Contending that they had "no information about the recruitment drive by ITBP", Budhalakoti said Railways came to know about it only when large number of job aspirants started gathering at stations in Bareilli and other places.

"We have successfully handled the crowd even during the Kumbh Mela celebrations and we could have taken steps had we been informed in this case," he said.

He said train services which had came to a grinding halt from the morning hours yesterday due to the agitation by the job-seekers were resorted after Uttar Pradesh government pressed in forces following his request.

"We could not stop train movement for long due to bunching of trains on the route and due to passenger inconvenience because of long delays," he said to a question.

Budhalakoti said they had also run special trains to clear the crowd.

He said the cancellation of the recruitment drive infuriated the students who resorted to stone-pelting and opened the hosepipes of trains to prevent train movement.

Over 1.5 lakh youths, vying for ITBP jobs, had reached Bareilly yesterday morning to submit forms for recruitment in the force.