TRAGEDY ON THE TRACKS

Female boxing champion, 18, killed by train as she crossed railway ‘using smartphone and wearing headphones’

A FEMALE boxing champion was killed by a train as she crossed a railway line “wearing headphones and browsing her smartphone”.

Amina Bulakh, 18, was walking towards her home in the village of Tarasivka outside Kyiv, Ukraine last week when she was struck and fatally wounded.

Police said Bulakh walked over the tracks at a designated crossing but did not see the train until the last moment.

Witnesses said she tried to avoid the train but was unable to get out of the way in time.

The accident happened on November 14.

Bulakh is reported not to have seen or heard the train approaching because she was wearing headphones and looking at her mobile phone.

Police said she had left a local pharmacy and was returning home at the time of the accident.

The train is reported to have been a passenger service from Kyiv to the nearby city of Fastiv.

Ukraine police have launched an investigation into the death.

Amina was an amateur boxer and Ukrainian women's youth champion.

In September, she won a bronze medal at the European youth boxing championship in Bulgaria.

A statement from the Boxing Federation of Ukraine said: “Tragic circumstances have taken the life of Ukraine youth female team member Amina Bulakh."

A post from the organisation's Facebook page added: "Eternal memory to you, Amin Bulakh..."

DETERMINED TO BOX

Amina's coach, Victor Fesechko, told Ukrainian outlet that he had heard about the accident from Amina's mother.

"At first I didn't even understand," he said

"I said, 'Anya, everything will be fine.'

"And then like a blow to the head: 'Amin is gone.'"

Fesechko has coached Amina for the last eight years, and recalled how he first met her.

"A little, slim girl of 10 years came in and she says she wants to be a boxer," he said.

"I didn't train girls at the time. It was even strange for me."

He said he at first declined to take her on, but she came back a second and third time until he agreed.

A colleague who was organising a tournament later got in touch and asked if Fesechko knew of any girls who would want to enter.

He sent Amina, and she began winning medals.

A teacher at Amina's school remembered her as bright and hard-working.

Amina had recently spent time studying in Poland and had wanted to go into business.