A fire broke out due to a short circuit in one of the general coaches of the Sealdah-Ajmer Express train here, spreading panic among passengers, but no one was hurt in the incident.
According to officials, the fire was detected in the third coach from the rear in the Ajmer-bound train at around 1.20 pm. After some passengers pulled the chain, it came to a halt and the people swiftly vacated the coach, with some jumping out of windows.
Station Superintendent of Bharwari station DN Yadav said that 12987 Sealdah-Ajmer Express was stopped at the railway station and the fire in the general coach was extinguished in about 30 minutes.
The train left for its destination at around 2 pm, he said, adding that no passenger was injured in the incident. The officials said that the fire occurred due to a short circuit.
Also on Tuesday, the Secunderabad-Agartala Express was halted at Odisha's Brahmapur railway station around noon as passengers alerted railway officials about smoke emitting from an air-conditioning unit inside a coach, officials said.
"It was reported that a minor electrical issue occurred in the coach no. B-5 of Secunderabad-Agartala Express near Brahmapur station. The staff on duty attended to the issue immediately and rectified it," an East Coast Railway (ECoR) official said.
Though the smoke was controlled immediately, panic-stricken passengers refused to travel in it and demanded a replacement, an official said. On Monday, a passenger travelling in an inter-city express in Kerala was taken into custody for allegedly attempting to set the coach on fire. Over the last two months, there have been two incidents of arson on trains in Kerala.
In the first instance, three people including a baby died and nine others suffered burns in an arson in Kozhikode district on April 2 onboard the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train.
On June 1, a West Bengal native allegedly set ablaze a coach of the same express train in the early hours after it had halted at Kannur railway station and all the passengers had deboarded. The man was arrested the very next day and police said that he was a beggar who was suffering mental trauma.
