3 Dead as man sprays petrol, sets off blaze in moving Kerala train

Three persons, including a one-year-old child and a woman, were found dead on the tracks near the Elathur railway station here, hours after a man allegedly set afire a co-passenger and injured eight others on board an express train.

A senior police official from the district told PTI that the bodies of a woman, a child and a man were recovered from the tracks late Sunday night.

The three were missing from the train after the fire incident on Sunday, he added.

At around 9.45 pm, when the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train reached the Korapuzha railway bridge here after crossing Kozhikode city, an unidentified man poured an inflammable liquid on a co-passenger and set him on a fire resulting in burn injuries to at least eight persons, police said.

The man escaped soon after the incident, while the injured were shifted to hospitals after passengers pulled the emergency chain.

When the train reached Kannur, a few passengers complained that a woman and a child were missing after the incident.

"A man, who was injured, kept looking for a woman and a child. We found footwear and a mobile phone of that woman," a passenger told the media at Kannur.

Soon after the news of the missing persons came out, the city police inspected the tracks and found three bodies, including the woman and the child and a mid-aged man.

Police suspect they fell off the train or attempted to deboard after seeing the fire.

"The woman and the child who went missing were found dead on the tracks. There is one unidentified body of a male. We have found CCTV visuals of the suspect. Investigation is on," a senior police official of the district said.

Sources said the woman was the child's aunt.

A total of nine persons have been admitted to various hospitals, including the Kozhikode Medical College, for treatment, further details are awaited.