MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Furious stranded commuters torch trains in Buenos Aires

“This was planned, it was premeditated,” minister Fernandez

Angry commuters have set fire to train carriages on Thursday in metropolitan Buenos Aires to protest morning rush hour delays. The police reported several arrests and the Argentine government blamed leftist activists for the incidents.

The trouble began when a malfunctioning train came to a stop before the western station of Castelar. Furious passengers got off the train and walked along the tracks to the station, where some of them destroyed ticket machines and vandalized shops. Meanwhile, other passengers set fire to the front carriage of the train. In a separate incident at three stations further west, rioters set fire to another six train carriages. The Buenos Aires police chief said there is no way the incidents can be considered entirely spontaneous and suggests the involvement of organised violent groups. Television images showed the charred carriages and interviewed passengers said the delays had cost them a day's work and "this is not the first time this kind of stoppage happens". Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez said the faulty train's brakes had been sabotaged and leftist political activists took rocks and flares from their backpacks to incite violence and set the train aflame. "This was planned, it was premeditated," Fernandez told a news conference, adding the fire caused nearly 8 million US dollars in damages to the newest train running on the heavily traveled line. Argentina's dilapidated rail services are plagued by delays and passengers' anger has erupted into violence before. Last year, stranded furious commuters torched a carriage at a station south of the capital and rioting broke out at a main railway station when passengers clashed with police, causing dozens of injuries and arrests.