An express train was detained for more than four minutes outside the Virudhunagar Railway Station as the gatekeeper, allegedly in an inebriated mood, failed to close the gate of the level crossing on Ramamurthy Road late Friday night.
Railway sources said that the gatekeeper had not responded to calls made by the officials from the Virudhunagar railway station as the Nagercoil-Coimbatore Express train could not enter the station for lack of signal.
Even as a railway man was approaching the railway gate, local people found the gatekeeper intoxicated.
The local people along with the railway man closed the gate. The gatekeeper, who was along with his friend, was taken for medical examination.