Ballia (UP), Sep 28: The engine of a train hit a stone placed on the railway track in the Bairia area here on Saturday, officials said, adding that no damage was caused.

The incident assumes significance as it was a fresh one amid several cases of gas cylinders, pillars etc being found on railway tracks in Uttar Pradesh.

Public Relations Officer of the North Eastern Railway Ashok Kumar told PTI that on Saturday a stone was found on the railway track between on the Varanasi-Ballia-Chhapra rail section at 10.25 am.

He said the cattle guard of the engine of the 15054 Lucknow-Chhapra Express going from Lucknow to Chhapra (Bihar).

Kumar said that on seeing the stone placed on the track, the loco pilot applied emergency brakes.

He said that after inspection, the train resumed its journey and the loco pilot did not report any kind of damage in this incident.

SHO of the Bairia police station Ramayan Singh said the incident happened in front of Yadav Nagar of the Chand Diyar village before the Manjhi bridge on UP-Bihar border. He said that a passenger train had also passed through this route half an hour before the Lucknow-Chhapra Express train.

Meanwhile, Circle Officer (Bairia) Mohammad Usman said that at around 10.40 am on Saturday, about 300 metres before the Manjhi railway bridge, some sleeper coaches of the train got scratched due to the engine's safety guard hitting the stone in the middle of the track.

"On receiving the information, we immediately reached the spot with the police force and inspected it," he said, and added that the local police and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) are investigating the spot.

Prior to Saturday's incident, on September 22, two people were arrested in connection with the alleged derailment bid of the Naini Jan Shatabdi Express by placing six-metre-long iron pole on track between the Bilaspur Road and Rudrapur City railway stations on September 18 in Rampur, police said.

The driver of the Naini Jan Shatabdi Express averted a possible accident when he applied the emergency brakes on seeing the iron pole across the tracks near Uttarakhand's Rudrapur, officials said, adding it could be sabotage.

On September 22, a goods train driver spotted an empty LPG cylinder on the tracks, and applied emergency brakes to stop the train near the Prempur station in Kanpur, the second such incident in Uttar Pradesh this month.

On September 8, an attempt was made to derail the Kalindi Express, heading towards Bhiwani from Prayagraj, by placing an LPG cylinder on the tracks. The train hit the cylinder before coming to a screeching halt.

On August 17, the Sabarmati Express derailed between the Kanpur and Bhimsen stations in Uttar Pradesh, a Railway Board official had said.

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Hyderabad, May 5 (PTI): Sunrisers Hyderabad were eliminated from the play-offs race after their Indian Premier League fixture against Delhi Capitals was called off due to heavy rain following the first innings here on Monday.

Pat Cummins-led SRH pace attack ran through the DC batting line-up to limit the visitors to 133/7 before rain dashed the slim hopes of the home team. Both teams shared a point each for the abandoned game.

With 13 points from 11 games, DC remain in contention for a top-four spot.

After reaching the final last year, it was a season to forget for SRH who could not replicate their ballistic run of 2024 with the bat. Having collected only seven points from 11 matches, SRH will now be playing for pride.

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were already eliminated from the competition.

Before rain lashed the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, the hosts put up a clinical effort with the ball and were on course for only their fourth win of the season until rain arrived, creating large puddles of water on the outfield. The match officials decided to call off the game at 11.10 pm local time.

The shot selection of Delhi Capitals' batters contributed to their downfall after being put in to bat.

They were left reeling at 29 for five in 7.1 overs with captain Cummins causing the maximum damage.

Cummins had Karun Nair caught behind on the very first ball of the match with a good length ball around the off-stump. It was a rather loose shot from the DC batter first up.

Faf du Plessis departed in Cummins' following over, a failed attempt to put the relentless Australian away for a boundary. Not getting any loose ball from Cummins, the South Africa went for a pull on the charge only to be caught by the wicket-keeper.

Cummins' third victim was Abhishek Porel who was caught after mistiming a flick.

Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat then got into the act by dismissing Axar Patel and K L Rahul respectively. The in-form Rahul went for a drive on the up but ended up edging it to Ishan Kishan behind the stumps.

It was one way traffic until Tristian Stubbs (41 not out off 36) and impact player Ashutosh Sharma (41 off 26) combined to take DC to a respectable total. They shared a 66-run stand off 45 balls.

Sharma was able to break the shackles by depositing leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari for a couple of sixes over long-on in the 15th over.

Stubbs did not look as comfortable as Sharma in the middle but managed to provide much needed support to the latter. The South African could find only four boundaries with the last one coming off the final ball of the innings.