Maoists trigger blasts at station in Andhra

A group of about 10 Maoists triggered blasts at a railway station in Vizianagaram district on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa broad gauge line late on Tuesday night. There were no casualities.

The first to come under attack at the Gumada railway station, which is close to the Orissa border, was the Control Panel cabin. The Maoists subsequently blasted other parts of the railway station using IEDs, Vizianagaram SP Vikram Singh Mann said. Gumada is the last station on the Andhra Pradesh side of the route after which the track enters Orissa’s Raigadha district.

Train services were affected for a few hours following the attack. They were restored by 6 am on Wednesday. No arrests have been made so far in this connection.

Meanwhile, coastal districts braced for another cyclone as the Met department said another ‘small’ depression was forming in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Vizag. The Met department’s update came even as situation was improving in districts affected by torrential rains last weekend.