The incident began at Thane station after passengers reportedly raised an alarm about a snake being present inside the ladies compartment. Some women passengers pulled the emergency chain, forcing the local to stop at the station.
The train, which had departed from platform number 4 at Thane at 9:14 am, remained halted until 9:26 am. It was then allowed to continue after an initial check.
Railway officials, however, did not take the report lightly. As a precaution, the local was stopped again at Nahur station for another inspection. It remained there for around four minutes.
The train was subsequently taken to Kurla, where it was held for another 14 minutes. Animal rescuers were called in and carried out a detailed search of the ladies coach as well as the rest of the train.
Despite the repeated checks, no snake or any other animal was found anywhere inside the local. Railway authorities later concluded that the information about a snake appeared to have been a false alarm.
The incident nevertheless affected the morning schedule on the Up slow route. Several local trains, including DL-12, PTL-2, K-36, TL-18, DL-14 and K-40, were reported to be running late.
Since the incident occurred during the busy morning peak, the unexpected stops caused inconvenience to a large number of commuters travelling towards Mumbai.
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