Thousands ransack railway station as protests intensify over India’s military hiring plan

Government announces concessions to scheme as police arrest at least 260 people and hundreds of train services cancelled due to unrest

Protesters in India's eastern state of Bihar have damaged public property and ransacked offices in a railway station, expressing outrage at a new military recruitment plan and demanding the government reverse course.

The government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has introduced a scheme called Agnipath, or path of fire", designed to bring more people into the military on four-year contracts to lower the average age of India's 1.38 million-strong armed forces.