Stones Thrown On Vande Bharat Train In Punjab, Windows Damaged

Stones were thrown on the Vande Bharat Express train from Amritsar to Delhi in Punjab's Phagwara today. No injuries were reported but the multi-layered window of the Vande Bharat Train was damaged. 

Stones were pelted by unknown people on the window of the C-3 coach, damaging two windows. Visuals show a boy sitting next to the window and a big crack on the panel, forming concentric circles, though the stone couldn't penetrate the thick layer of the window panes.

The other panel shattered with a small hole in the window panes.

Two residents from Gurugram, travelling in the C3 coach of the train, said that as soon as they boarded the Vande Bharat Express from Phagwara to Delhi, they heard a loud sound near their seat. They said, initially, they did not know what had happened. But later, when the matter was investigated, it was found that unknown people from outside had pelted stones on the C3 coach of the Vande Bharat Express train.

Some passengers claimed these stones were thrown by children.

The Railway Department officials reached the coach and gathered all the information. No such incident of stone pelting on any train has been witnessed on the Phagwara Guraya railway track for a long time.  

Several incidents of stone pelting on Vande Bharat trains have taken place in the past. In March, Four Vande Bharat trains were pelted with stones by unknown people in different locations in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh while passing through the South Western Railway (SWR) zone.

Though no passenger or staff sustained any injuries, the window panes of the trains were damaged in the incident, which occurred in the Bengaluru division of SWR, they said.

Three separate cases have been registered in connection with each of these incidents of stone pelting, officials said.

In November last year, Rourkela-Puri Vande Bharat Express was pelted with stones, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) said. However, no injuries were reported in the incident that took place between Meramandali and Budhapank stations in the Dhenkanal-Angul railway section, it said.

"Train number 20835 Vande Bharat Express has been targeted by some stone-pelters between Meramandali and Budhapank in the Dhenkanal-Angul railway section of the Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur rail line," the statement read.

A windowpane of an executive class coach was damaged and the train reached Puri with a delay of 13 minutes, a railway official said.