Missed taxi saves family from station missile

They finally arrived for the 11 am evacuation train just three minutes after the explosion.Ivan Sydorneko says there were around 2,000 people inside the station and on the platforms when the missile hit.

Eyewitness descriptions are coming from Kramatorsk, the town in eastern Ukraine where a missile hit a train station packed with evacuees on Friday.

The Sydorneko family could have been among the 52 dead and more than 100 wounded, but their taxi didn't show and they had to wait for another one. They finally arrived for the 11 am evacuation train just three minutes after the explosion.

Ivan Sydorneko says there were around 2,000 people inside the station and on the platforms when the missile hit. He says they got out of their taxi in a scene of burning cars, burning pieces of the missile and people fleeing for their lives.

Ivan managed to escape by bus and then train with his wife and daughter, eventually reaching the relative safety of Lviv in western Ukraine. The Sydornekos are just one of thousands of families clamouring to leave eastern Ukraine ahead of an expected Russian onslaught there.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 10 evacuation corridors were planned for Saturday, and other stations were open for trains full of refugees.

Russia meanwhile has denied responsibility, accusing Ukraine's military of firing on the station to try to turn blame for civilian slayings on Moscow.