Two schoolgirls talking on their mobile phones were mowed down by a suburban train as they were crossing the tracks near Liluah station at 12.45pm on Tuesday.

Payel Agarwal and Himanshi Gupta, both Class X students at Agrasain Balika Siksha Sadan, were crossing the tracks on their way to tuition classes when the Up Memari local ran them over. Himanshi died on the spot, while Payel died within minutes of being hospitalised.

Signalman Gautam Majumder said he tried to alert the girls, “but they could not hear him because they were engrossed in making calls”.

A railway official said there used to be a rail gate at the spot where the girls were crossing, but it had been closed down after an overbridge was built. “Even then, many people cross the tracks, putting their lives at risk,” he added.

nGold theft: An employee of a jewellery workshop in north Calcutta’s Girish Park has allegedly run away with gold ornaments and a gold slab, worth around Rs 21 lakh, which he was to deliver to a Bihar showroom. Asit Biswas, 40, of Solitaire Project Private Limited had started out for Jhanjhapur on May 21. He has not returned after calling up his employer the next day to say that the ornaments were looted from him.

Zoo protest: The Alipore zoo was closed for 30 minutes from 2pm on Tuesday because members of an Intuc-affiliated zoo workers’ union gheraoed the director, Raju Das. The workers’ demands included the withdrawal of an FIR that the suspended deputy director, Piyali Chatterjee, had filed against three members of the union, alleging molestation.

Arrested: Arun Bramha, 37, a Trinamul Youth Congress president from Aatpur in Jagaddal, North 24-Parganas, was arrested early on Tuesday for possessing arms and rioting.

Doctor missing: Masud Rana Biswas, 28, a doctor, went missing from the RG Kar hostel on Sunday. Police found a note from Biswas’s room, apparently written by him, claiming he left because he was depressed.