A student's exam celebration turned to tragedy when he was electrocuted after crawling under a stationary train, an inquest was told.

Yasha Mozaffari, 21, of Hayfield Road, north Oxford, received a violent shock and died from his injuries. His death prompted his mother Paula to make an impassioned plea over rail safety.

She said: "It is our heartfelt wish that no-one else's son or daughter should die on the railway lines - as our dear Yasha did - from ignorance of the existence of live rails. Parents, schools and colleges must make sure that every child is told of every danger that exists on the railway lines."

Yasha and his friend Peter Coventry were both students at King Alfred's College, Winchester, in Hampshire, and had been celebrating their exam results on July 20.

Yasha had received a 2:1 combined psychology and biology degree. He had also celebrated his 21st birthday eight days earlier.

The jury at the inquest heard the high-spirited pair had spotted the train standing with its lights on in a siding just metres from Winchester station. The friends scaled a broken chain fence, slid down a steep embankment and climbed aboard the unlocked train to look around.

The inquest heard that Yasha, who was found to be almost three times over the drink driving limit, had even considered driving the train.

Sobbing, Peter said: "We both jumped off the train and wanted to know what the train looked like underneath."

He followed Yasha beneath the train, he told the court, and added: "I had got a full body length under the carriage and I remember him saying it would be alright. They were his last words to me.

"I think it was his arm that hit the third rail. I saw an orange flash, two flashes in all. He swung down and I went to grab him.

"I tried to pull him off again and I got another shock. I could see he was dead but I just kept punching his chest to get him to breathe."

A post-mortem examination revealed that Yasha had been electrocuted.

The jury returned an accidental death verdict at the hearing in Winchester yesterday.