Coach of halted train catches fire in Kerala; one person in police custody

Kannur (Kerala): A coach of an express train which halted at the Kannur railway station in Kerala caught fire in the small hours of Thursday and one person is reportedly in police custody in connection with the incident.

The incident occurred on the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train in which two months ago a man had set fire to his co-passengers, which resulted in three deaths including a toddler, leading to speculation that it might be a case of sabotage and connected to the earlier one.

Central agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and the National Investigation Agency arrived at the scene in the morning and are investigating all angles, including that of sabotage, sources said.

The fire was noticed by some station staff at around 1.30 AM and they informed the Kannur Fire and Rescue Station which dispatched four units to deal with the blaze which was contained at around 3.15 AM, a fire rescue officer said.