A one-year-old child and a woman were among three persons found dead on the tracks near the Elathur railway station in Kerala's Kozhikode. This came hours after a man allegedly set afire a co-passenger and injured eight others on board an express train.
The bodies of a woman, a child, and a man were recovered from the tracks late Sunday night, news agency PTI reported a senior police official as saying.
The three were missing from the train after the fire incident on Sunday, he added.
Forensic experts on Monday reached the spot where the bodies of three people were found.
The Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train reached the Korapuzha railway bridge at around 9.45 pm after crossing Kozhikode city. That is when an unidentified man poured an inflammable liquid on a co-passenger and set him on fire resulting in burn injuries to at least eight persons, police said, as per PTI.
The man escaped soon after the incident and 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, as quoted by PTI.
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, as per PTI.
The PTI report mentioned a source as saying that 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.