Durgapur Aug. 28: A leather bag lying on a track triggered a scare at Panagarh station last night.

Inspecting it, the bomb squad of Burdwan police concluded around 1.30 am that it had to be an explosive.

Platform I was cordoned off and the criminal investigation department brass in Calcutta were alerted.

CID sleuths took about five hours to reach Panagarh, about 200 km from the city, by road.

Around 6.30 this morning, they found that the bomb bag actually contained sand, bricks, stonechips, some papers and wires. An “all clear” was sounded by 7.30 am.

At 9:30 last night, a railway employee saw the bag lying on the track near platform I. He informed stationmaster S.N. Chatterjee, who called in the Railway Protection Force.

A district police team led by superintendent Peeyush Pandey also moved in.

The bomb squad personnel, however, took four hours to reach the spot from the Burdwan district headquarters, only about 50 km away. After a “close inspection”, its personnel declared that the bag contained a “real bomb”.

A squad official today said they received the information around 10 but did not have a vehicle to rush to the spot.

“We were not ready, so we were late,” admitted D.P. Bhattacharya, a sub-inspector. The squad, he said, examined the bag with a metal detector as it did not have a scanner.

Pandey today appeared annoyed with the performance of his bomb experts. “The bomb disposal squad here needs immediate upgrade. If they could identify the fake bomb earlier, the panic situation could have been averted,” he said.

Eastern Railway officials said train services had to be stopped for over two hours ? between 9:30 pm and 11:55 pm. After that, the north India-bound trains were run through the Down line. Several long-distance trains, including Lal Quila Express, Danapur Express and Kalka Mail, were stranded for hours.