A 54-year-old woman died after being run over by the Mumbai-bound Vande Bharat Express train near Anand railway station in Gujarat on Tuesday.
The victim has been identified as Beatrice Archibald Peter, news agency PTI reported. She was crossing the track when the accident took place at 4.37pm, said the report added citing an official.
The train was on its way to Mumbai Central from Gandhinagar Capital station. It does not have a halt at Anand. Further investigation was underway, the report said.
The incident took place a day after stones were allegedly pelted at a Vande Bharat train in which party president Asaduddin Owaisi was travelling in poll-bound Gujarat. Police, however, denied the claim and said an investigation was on into the incident which took place on Monday.
There have been at least three incidents of cattle dying on the track after being hit by the train in the last one month.
On October 29, a cow was hit by a Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Superfast Express train at 8.30am near Atul station in Gujarat’s Valsad, damaging the nose cover of the engine.
This was the third instance of train-cattle collision since the launch of the indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high speed train on September 30. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off the inaugural run of the train.
In the first week of October, two similar incidents occurred where cattle were run over by the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express. On October 6, four buffaloes were killed after being hit by the train on its way to Gandhinagar from Mumbai between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Gujarat. Its nose panel had to be replaced overnight due to the damage. The second incident occurred the next day on October 7 when the train hit a cow near Anand in Gujarat while on its way to Mumbai.