A woman suffered critical burns inside the compartment of a halted train at the Kannur railway station here on Monday morning in a suspected attack by an unidentified person. She succumbed to the burns at the Government Medical College, Kozhikode, at 8.30 p.m.
The police identified the victim as Pathutti alias Khadeeja, 45, wife of Hassan, Velliyil House at Kondotti in Malappuram.
She was first rushed to a government hospital here and from there to the Kozhikode hospital.
The incident took place inside the 13th compartment of the Kannur-Alappuzha Executive Express stationed on Platform No.1 of the railway station around 4.30 a.m.
The police said that an unidentified person poured liquor on her and set her on fire while she was sitting inside the compartment.
After the attack, she ran out of the compartment with her clothes on fire.
Some passengers at the station saw a person fleeing from the compartment and crossing the tracks towards the eastern entry of the railway station. The Railway Police said that they had got some clues about the person. The police recovered a bottle of liquor from the compartment.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel at the station said that no other passenger was inside the compartment when the incident took place as she boarded the compartment immediately after the train was stationed on the platform half-an-hour before its departure at 5 a.m. The incident took place in the dark as the lights inside the compartment were yet to be switched on by the maintenance staff.
The RPF said that some people at the station heard the woman arguing with a person before the incident took place.