Forty-five tourists from Calcutta who were stranded in Hardwar because of the lockdown were intercepted while they were returning to the city on Sunday and sent to a government quarantine unit in New Town.

Sources said Calcutta police had received information about the return of the group from relatives of one of the tourists.

Officers of Cossipore police station intercepted the bus carrying the tourists near the Dunlop crossing and took them to RG Kar hospital for a preliminary check-up. All of them were then sent to the quarantine unit.

The tourists, from various pockets of Calcutta and outskirts, had got stuck after trains were cancelled. They started their journey back home on Friday in a bus.

“At the Jharkhand border, the police of that state wrote ‘HQ’ on our arms. We had last eaten a proper meal on Friday. We found all the shops closed on our way to Bengal,” said an elderly tourist who was part of the group.

“At RG Kar hospital, we were asked whether we had any physical ailments. None of us had any. We were then sent to Rajarhat in the same bus,” another tourist said.

According to the health department’s directive, anyone entering the state from outside Bengal will have to be quarantined, at home or a government facility.