Sept. 6: Robbers struck on the Howrah-bound Danapur Express near Patna last night and shot at a trainer accompanying a team of physically challenged athletes when he tried to resist.

Vishwakarma Sharma took a bullet in his thigh while trying to prevent the goons from snatching a cellphone from one of his team members.

Seeing the brave physical trainer, many passengers gathered courage and the goons were forced to flee with whatever little they got, said Rishikesh Ghosh, a resident of Maniktala who was returning from Bihar after a business trip.

“The train was packed. Many youths from Bihar were going to Calcutta for a railway recruitment exam and there was the athletic team, but not a single policeman.”

The heist took place at Khusrupur in Patna district, about 40km from Patna city.

Another passenger, Shahid Razzak, said the police did not help them even after the goons stopped the train and jumped off it. “Scared of the robbers coming back, we collected stones from the tracks to resist them,” he said.

Sharma, a schoolteacher from north Bihar’s Chapra district, has been admitted to Patna Medical College Hospital.

The train reached the nearby Bakhtiyarpur station around midnight. An FIR was lodged there on the basis of the statements of Sharma and the other passengers.

The heist highlights lack of security on trains in the area even after six bogies of an inter-city train were burnt there in June.