Sodepur turns turbulent as passengers ransack station over wrong announcement

Kolkata: Sodepur station in North 24-Parganas on Wednesday turned into a battlefield after an irate mob carried out a rampage, ransacking a portion of the railway station due to wrong announcement of a train.

The incident led to the disruption of train services in Sealdah main section on Wednesday morning for more than two hours, resulting in the cancelling of 15 pairs of EMU local trains. Around 21 EMU locals and three Mail trains were detained en-route for 50 minutes each.

Many of the commuters put up a block on the railway track. Some local people hurled stones at the booking office, during which some passengers received injuries. It has been learnt that a problem in the public addressing system had triggered the incident.

There was an announcement at Sodepur station at around 9:53 am, saying that a local train will arrive on platform number 2. Within few minutes, a Down Gede local came on the track but it did not stop at the platform. Instead, the train passed through the track in a slow pace like a galloping train. Some of the passengers tried boarding the running train. They eventually failed as the train picked up speed.

Following the incident, the passengers became infuriated and they started ransacking a portion of the platform, ticket counter and cabins of railway employees. Some also put up a block on the railway track.

A huge contingent of police from Barrackpore commissionerate rushed to the spot along with the railway police. They had resorted to lathi charge to disperse the mob.

At least 12 local trains were cancelled after the incident. Normal train services were resumed at around 11:58 am on Wednesday.

Many local trains were stranded in various stations. Passengers blamed the railway authorities for the incident. Railway authorities said that an error in the interlocking system at Halisahar had led to the incident.

A railway spokesperson also said that people were informed on the interlocking works at Halisahar and its possible impact on train movement through newspapers.