Close shave for passengers as overhead wire falls on coach

Kolkata: One of the coaches of a local train caught fire at Canning station in South 24 Parganas on Wednesday after an overhead wire got snapped and fell on it. Train services were disrupted in the Sealdah-Canning section over three hours due to the incident which incident took place at around 11.55 am.

Up Canning-Sealdah Local train, crowded with the commuters, was awaiting for its departure at platform no. 2 of the station. Suddenly the overhead wire got snapped and fell on the coach of the train igniting flames and dark smoke. The ER said, “It caused a flash and a small part of the upper portion of a coach of the said EMU train was slightly burnt which created panic among travelling passengers.”

Helpless, the commuters started getting down from the affected coach in hurry. Some of them reportedly fell down on the platform and suffered minor injuries. The ER however claimed, “It is however clearly stated that there is no case of any injury or casualty to any passenger out of this incident. A fire engine reached the station.

The ER added, “Reacting immediately after parting of overhead wire, power vans proceeded from Baruipur station and from Sealdah (South). Necessary repairing work for restoration of the train movements have been started on war footing. Normal train services resumed at 15.45 pm after necessary repair work of the overhead wire.”

Seven EMU locals (3 Down and 4 Up) were cancelled, eight EMU locals (4 Up & 4 Down) were short-terminated at Ghutiari Shariff and two down EMU locals were detained enroute for around 40 minutes each on an average.