A suicide at Chandni Chowk Metro station disrupted services for around 40 minutes on Monday evening, leaving thousands of commuters stranded.

A bearded man in his 50s, wearing a turban, jumped on the tracks while a Kavi Subhash (New Garia)-bound train was entering the station around 7.20pm.

The driver applied the emergency brakes but a couple of coaches of the train went over the man, whose identity police could not establish till late on Monday.

The man was taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital where he was declared dead.

The suicide led to the services being stalled between Girish Park and Maidan stations for nearly 40 minutes, from 7.22pm till 8pm.

Truncated services were operated between Noapara and Girish Park stations in the north and Maidan and Kavi Subhash stations in the south.

'We evacuated the passengers through the gates of the first two compartments and then reversed the train into the tunnel. After that the power supply to the third rail was switched off and the body recovered,' said a Metro Railway official.

It took around 30 minutes to recover the body.

'I was waiting for a train at Central station but there was no indication when the services would resume. So I decided to come out and take a taxi. But already there was a crowd outside. It was difficult to get a cab and the buses were crowded,' said Tanmoy Sen, a private firm employee who takes Metro from Central for Kalighat every evening.

Sen finally boarded a train after 8pm.