A fire broke out in a coach of an empty passenger train at Sasaram railway station in Bihar early Monday, triggering panic on the platform before railway officials and firefighters brought the blaze under control.
No casualties were reported in the incident, officials said.
According to the East Central Railway, smoke was first noticed coming out of a compartment of the Sasaram-Patna passenger train while it was stationed at platform number 6 around 5.30 am.
East Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Saraswati Chandra said railway authorities immediately alerted the fire brigade after the blaze was spotted. The flames were extinguished within nearly 30 minutes.
"The fire brigade was informed by railway officials, and the flames were extinguished in about half an hour. There have been no casualties. An investigation is on to ascertain the cause of the fire," the CPRO said.
The latest incident comes within a day of another major train fire involving the Thiruvananthapuram Central-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express, raising fresh concerns over railway safety and coach fire incidents.
The fire on the Rajdhani Express broke out around 5.15 am on Sunday in the B-1 passenger coach while the train was moving between Vikramgarh Alot and Lunirichha stations under the Kota Railway division.
Officials said the fire erupted nearly one-and-a-half hours after the train departed from Ratlam Junction in Madhya Pradesh. Apart from the affected passenger coach, the luggage brake and generator car attached behind it were also damaged in the blaze.
No deaths were reported in the Rajdhani Express incident either.
Following the Rajdhani Express fire, the West Central Railway Zone constituted a high administrative grade-level inquiry committee to investigate the cause of the incident and examine safety measures.
Railway officials are now also probing the Sasaram station coach fire to determine how the blaze started in the empty passenger train.
With agency inputs