Smoke in Delhi Metro compartment triggers panic at Laxmi Nagar station

Passengers panicked on seeing smoke in the women’s compartment of a train at Laxmi Nagar Metro station. DMRC officials said smoke was caused by a short circuit. Incident comes two days after a bird hit stopped services on the busy Blue Line of Delhi Metro for three hours.

Panic gripped passengers at Laxmi Nagar Metro station on Thursday evening after a short-circuit in the air-conditioning vent of the women coach of a train.

A bird hit triggered a short circuit on the Blue line on Tuesday, delaying services for three hours. Another minor electrical glitch was reported from a train at Laxmi Nagar on Thursday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The incident took place around 6:30 when the train had stopped at Laxmi Nagar station.

Priyanshu Gupta‏, who boarded the train at Mandi House on his way to Nirman Vihar, said, “As soon as the train stopped at Laxmi Nagar, we heard women passengers screaming on seeing smoke in the compartment,” he said.

A senior Delhi Metro official said there was little smoke but “nothing serious”.

“The passengers were shifted to other compartments as a precautionary measure,” the official said.

The incident comes two days Metro services were delayed by around three hours due to snag on the Blue Line (Dwarka 21-Noida City Centre/Vaishali) after a bird hit the overhead wires triggering a short-circuit near Indraprastha station.

The busiest and one of the longest, the Blue Line is the most snag-prone line of the Delhi Metro.