Kozhikode: At least three people died when an unidentified co-passenger poured an inflammable liquid then set them on fire in  D-1 compartment of a moving Alappuzha- Kannur Executive express train(16307) at Elathur on Sunday.

The shocking incident took place on Sunday night as police recovered a bag suspected to be belonging to the assailant from the railway track.

The bag contained two mobiles and one bottle of petrol and notepads from the railway track and an investigation is going on to nab the accused.

Crucial evidence gathered from a CCTV from a nearby building shows visuals of the supposed assailant youth boarding a motorbike near the accident spot.

According to police, three bodies were found on the railway track at Elathur near Korapuzha bridge on Monday around 0130 hrs and identified as Noufeek (40),a fish merchant and Rahmath (45), both hailing from Mattanur in Kannur district and Rahmath's sisters daughter Sahara(2) of Chaliyam in Kozhikode.

The injured Anil Kumar (50) of Kadirur in Kannur, his son Advaith (21) were admitted in burn ICU at Kozhikode medical college hospital (KMCH), while Anil Kumar's wife Sajisha (47), Aswathy (29) of Mannuthy in Thrissur district and Ruby (52) of Taliparamba in Kannur district were admitted at KMCH

Meanwhile, Jyotirindranath (34) and Prakash (34) were admitted in ICU and Prince (35) has been admitted to a private hospital in Kozhikode.

One of the injured persons took medical treatment from Koyilandy hospital.

The incident took place around 2130 hrs on Sunday when the train left Elathur railway station.

A youth entered from D-2 coach to D-1 and poured petrol-like inflammable liquid over the sitting passengers and set the co-passengers afire.

Then he pulled the emergency chain of the compartment and the train stopped over the Korapuzha bridge.

The three passengers tried to jump from the compartment.

Their bodies were found in the wee hours on Monday.

According to hospital sources, all the passengers' health conditions were stable and only they have suffered around 20 per cent burn injuries.

District Police Chief Rajpal Meena and fire fighters from Koyilandy rushed to the spot and rescued the passengers and shifted them to hospitals.

Railway police, City police and forensic experts collected the evidence from the coaches and bag recovered from the railway track.

The dead bodies were shifted to KMCH for post-mortem.

(With UNI inputs)