It took a group of college students just minutes to destroy railway property worth lakhs, when they set fire to a coach of the Shramjeevi Express at Bihta, about 30 km from Patna, on the Patna-New Delhi rail route.

The students were angry because Railway Police personnel had beaten up a student who was sitting in an AC coach of the Shramjeevi Express without a valid pass.

Four AC coaches were charred and rail traffic was held up for two hours.

In another incident of vandalism in another part of Bihar, a mob went beserk in the town of Lakhisarai, over the murder of a 25-yr-old man.

For close to two hours, the town was held to ransom, as a pitched battle was fought between the police and the mob. The area SP Bibek Raj Singh said: "We trying to arrest those responsible for the murder."

Earlier in the wee hours of Tuesday, a coach, S1, of the Patna-Pune Express was looted near Arra.

Twelve dacoits reportedly looted passengers and decamped with valuables worth Rs 1 lakh. Six passengers were injured in the incident, one of them seriously.