Brand new and swanky metro stations bore the brunt of the violence in the city on Monday. Ekkattuthangal, Vadapalani and Arumbakkam metro station premises were targets of protesters as they went on a rampage by breaking window panes and signboards inside the stations.
Arumbakkam metro station was badly damaged by miscreants who entered the station premises at around 7.30 pm, throwing stones at the windowpanes and CCTV cameras. Most of the window panes were broken, while some of them remain damaged. Police personnel present at Arumbakkam metro station told that around 100 anti-social broke open into the metro station and damaged all the CCTV cameras at the station.
“They broke the SBI ATM situated at the entrance of the station, looting around Rs 12,000 from it. The Adyar Anand Bhavan restaurant was also damaged and protesters took away snacks and milk packets from the counters. The security and other individuals were badly injured, four of whom are still in the hospital.” However, the control room executive denied attack on people or metro personnel.
The security has been strengthened at the station after the incident as panic prevails among workers at the station since Monday evening. Vadapalani metro station was also attacked by a mob around 5 pm, after which the services were stopped for around 15-20 minutes, as informed by the control room executive.
“Though there was not much damage on the station premises, a CCTV camera at the station entrance was damaged after offenders threw stones at it,” he said. The window panes near the lifts and security check scanners have been broken. ATM at the campus was also damaged by the mob. The services resumed after stopping for a while and operated normally on Tuesday.
Abinesh H., a daily commuter, said that the shutters of Ekkattuthangal metro stations were down around 5 pm on Monday. However, the metro was in operation in the night as services resumed after a while.
Security has been increased at all metro stations after being attacked by anti-social elements on Monday. Shutters remained half-closed at some stations even on Tuesday.
