Indian police said Thursday they found a body locked undetected in a bathroom on a train traveling 900 kilometers across the north of the country.
It is believed the man boarded the train days before leaving Bihar state and died in the bathroom after locking the door.
Ram Sahay, a railway police officer, told AFP that the door was forced open on Sunday after passengers complained about the smell. The train was traveling almost 24 hours out of a total journey of 35 hours when the discovery was made.
“We still don’t know anything about the man,” said Sahay, who lives in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh state, where the body was found.
“Possibly he got on the train when it was stopped and died two or three days before he was found,” he said.
Sanjay Rai, a doctor at the railway hospital, told the Times of India that the man “died after possibly going into a coma”. Authorities distributed placards with the man’s photo near Bihar railway station.
Tens of thousands of bodies go unclaimed and unidentified in India every year. They are usually cremated by the police after three days of trying to locate relatives or friends of the deceased.