An alert railway gangman averted a possible train accident by spotting two persons who were allegedly removing fish plates from a track near the ladoowal railway station, about 15 kms from here in Punjab, the police said today.

Gangman Shatrughan spotted the two persons who were tampering with the railway track under ladoowal GT railway over bridge last evening, the police said.

This happened just about 15 minutes before Amritsar-bound New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express was scheduled to pass through the spot, railway officials said.

Shatrughan immediately informed the station superintendent of the ladoowal railway station, who informed the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Railway police.

Meanwhile, the people around nabbed the miscreants and handed them over to the RPF when the force arrived at the spot.

GS Dhillon, Inspector General of Railway Police, said over phone from Patiala today that the miscreants have been identified as Hansraj Singh (40) of ludhiana and Pardeep Singh (56) of Mansa.

Investigations are being carried out jointly by the RPF and GRP, he said.

Preliminary investigations suggest that it was only a case of theft and as of now, there is no evidence to show that it was a case of sabotage, the IG said.

Dhillon said the antecedents of both the persons were being verified. One of them was stated to be having an ununsound mind.

A major rail tragedy had been averted due to the alertness the railway gangman, a rail official said.

A case has been registered by the ludhiana RPF in connection with the incident.