It was bizarre. A train ran 27km backwards yesterday, crossing three stations in Rajbari, without its driver.

The train -- Faridpur Express -- could finally be stopped near Pangsha station thanks to a ticket checker's presence of mind.

With the help of some passengers, the ticket checker undid the air-brake hoses between three carriages, which put the brakes on and stopped the train.

Some 150 passengers were on board the runaway train.

According to railway officials, minutes before the train was to leave Rajbari station for Faridpur around 8:00am, its driver Mohammad Ali, who was not in the locomotive, sent his assistant Faisal Hossain to check the engine.

Faisal did something wrong that made the train roll backwards on the Rajbari-Poradaha route.

Ali was chewing betel leaf on the platform. “Before I could realise what was happening, the train shot out of the station,” the driver later told our Kushtia correspondent.

Failing to control the train, the assistant jumped off the moving train.

“The train ran up to Pangsha Railway Station without any driver on board,” Bangladesh Railway Director (Traffic) Zahurul Islam told The Daily Star.

It took quite some time for the passengers to get that something was wrong.

“I didn't understand what was going on. I got frightened when I learned that the train was without the driver,” said passenger Azbor Uddin, 52, of Belgachhi in Kalukhali upazila of Rajbari.

As panicked passengers started screaming, ticket checker Anwar asked them to calm down and help him stop the train, Azbor added.

The train was then running around 30km an hour. After some effort, they managed to stop it near Pangsha station around 8:55am. By that time, it had run past three stations -- Sujanagar, Belgachhi and Kalukhali, said Kamruzzaman Khan, Rajbari stationmaster.

He said the incident took place due to some mistake made by the assistant driver.

“I saw the train pass and the passengers were screaming,” said Nizam Uddin, headmaster of Gopalpur Collegiate High School.

Driver Ali, his assistant Foysal and guard Subhas Chandra Sharma were suspended in connection with negligence of duty.

The railway has formed a five-member team to probe the incident.