A major tragedy was averted on Saturday when a powerful bomb was recovered from the Delhi-Guwahati Brahmaputra Mail in lower Assam's Kokrajhar railway station by the Government Railway Police personnel.

The GRP men on duty at the station found an unclaimed steel box inside a compartment of the train.

They brought it down to the platform and called in the army bomb disposal squad, defence sources said.

Sniffer dogs of the 11 Maratha Regiment were pressed into service and on opening the box a sophisticated live programmable time device, weighing 9 kg, was detected.

The bomb was taken away and defused at a safe place, the sources said adding, the identity of the insurgent outfit that planted the device was not immediately known.

Had the bomb exploded, it could have caused large-scale damage and loss of human lives as the train was filled to full capacity, the sources said.

Train services to and from the station was suspended between 12.30 am and 3 pm.