Smoke comes out from a torched compartment of the South Bihar Express. (PTI)

Patna, Oct. 22: The sparks from Maharashtra have ignited retaliatory vandalism in Bihar with protesters torching trains and compelling the railways to cancel several services during the day.

Students fuming over Sunday’s attacks by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on rail examinees went on the rampage in several parts of Bihar, forcing police to crack down.

Agency reports said a 10-year-old boy was killed in police firing in Rohtas but the district police chief didn’t confirm the death.

“Two of the four persons injured in police firing — one in the eye and another in the chest — have been taken to hospital in a serious condition,” chief minister Nitish Kumar told reporters.

Appealing to the people of Bihar to exercise restraint “in the face of extreme provocation”, Nitish said: “No problem can be solved through violence.... Violence is no answer to violence.”

In Barh, around 70km from Patna, agitators demanding Raj’s “trial for murder and sedition” torched an AC coach of the South Bihar Express.

“The fire spread to four sleeper coaches. But rail officials joined GRP and RPF jawans in dousing the fire. No passenger was hurt,” said A.K. Chandra, the chief public relations officer of East Central Railway.

Barh station is only 10km from Nalanda village of Pawan Mahto, the 25-year-old allegedly beaten to death by MNS activists on Sunday. Fellow examinees said Pawan, seriously injured in the head and legs, was thrown on the tracks by the stick-wielding mob and died soon after. Mumbai police, however, claimed he died in a train accident.

At Patna station, hundreds of examinees returning from Mumbai smashed the glass door of the main entrance before damaging furniture in the offices of the station superintendent and the deputy superintendent. The officials had to flee for their lives, railway sources said.

Railway police chief D.N. Gupta tried to persuade the agitators to end the violence before detaining around 100 protesters. The examinees squatted on the tracks and platforms, and chanted slogans.

The railways tonight cancelled 24 long-distance trains starting from, or passing through, Bihar because of the protests. Many of these would have headed to Calcutta, Guwahati and other destinations in the east.