Gunpowder in a bag unintentionally caught fire, injuring four people—a lady among them—in an explosion aboard a train at the Samastipur railway station in Bihar, according to a senior official.
Vinay Srivastava, the Divisional Railway Manager of Samastipur, said that the explosion happened on Wednesday afternoon as the Bhagalpur-Darbhanga Intercity Express was at the outside signal of the Samastipur train station.
Upon arriving to the impacted bus, a group of RPF and GRP staff members saw smoke rising from a bag stored on the upper bed.
After the wounded passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital for care, the train was permitted to continue on to Darbhanga, where all of the coach’s occupants were questioned.
The DRM said that two of the passengers, Arvind Mandal and Navendu Mandal, who are both from the Madhubani area, acknowledged that they had boarded the train carrying a bag containing gunpowder for making fireworks.
The official said that both had been taken into custody and that an investigation was ongoing.
