A passenger train has been attacked by suspected Maoist rebels in the northern Indian state of Bihar, police said.

Security guards on the train fired at the rebels who then fled to the nearby forests. Police said additional troops had been sent to the area.

Two people, including the driver of the Dhanbad-Patna express train, were injured in Thursday’s attack.

Officials said no passengers were hurt in the attack and that the train had left the area.

Maoists, also known as “Naxalites”, have been operating for more than 40 years in central and eastern India.

They demand land and jobs for the poor, and ultimately want to establish a “communist society” by overthrowing India’s “semi-colonial, semi-feudal” form of rule.

Last month, the rebels attacked a Congress party convoy, returning from a campaign rally, in the central state of Chhattisgarh, killing 28 people.

The state party chief Nandkumar Patel, his son, and local leader Mahendra Karma were among those killed in the attack.

Senior Indian Congress party leader Vidya Charan Shukla, who was critically injured in the attack, died in hospital on Tuesday.