Four girl students ran across railway tracks to rescue a lady teacher of a south Calcutta school who was being assaulted and abused by a group of parents at Dhakuria station on Tuesday morning.

The students took blows themselves but managed to rescue the teacher and helped her return to the school, her clothes almost ripped off by the attackers.

The teacher, in her late 40s, came under attack after parents of students of the school started a protest over an allegation that a six-year-old student had been molested by a teacher.

The girls, all students of Class XII of the school, had just got off a train on platform number 2 at the station when they saw their teacher, Roopa Bhattacharya, being thrashed by a group of parents.

Bhattacharya, a teacher in the primary section, was walking down platform number 1 on her way home to Selimpur.

“We all studied under ‘Roopa Miss’.... She was frantically waving at us, seeking our help,” said one of the students.

The four students did not waste a second. They jumped off the platform, scampered across the tracks and mounted platform number 1.

“The parents had by then almost pinned her down on the platform. They were raining blows on her. Her spectacles were smashed. They were even trying to tear her clothes,” recounted a student.

The students tried to reason with the parents that their was no point assaulting a teacher for an alleged offence she was not involved in.

“But they did not pay any heed to our pleas. We then formed a ring to shield her. Enraged with us, the parents began assaulting us. They also verbally abused us, accusing us of taking sides. Thankfully, the police turned up at the spot in time and rescued the teacher and us,” said one of the students.

The police said the parents chased Bhattacharya through a road in Dhakuria’s Bank Plot to the station.

Biswatosh Bhattacharya, the elder brother of the assaulted teacher, rushed to the school on learning about the agitation at the school from TV news.

“My mother, who is 87, got worried. My sister is in trauma,” he said.

A police officer said the parents pounced on the teacher to vent their frustration at having been denied an opportunity to mete out mob justice to the teacher accused of molesting the child.