Chandigarh, July 22 (IANS): Authorities in Haryana on Wednesday recovered seven live rockets from a railway track on the busy Ambala-Delhi section near Shahbad town in Haryana.

At least a dozen trains, carrying thousands of commuters, were held up four two to four hours as the rockets were removed from the tracks and the whole area was sanitized for security reasons.

The rockets were kept in boxes and were found by locals between Shahbad railway station and Dola Majra village in Kurukshetra district.

The affected trains included the Kalka-Delhi Shatabdi, the Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi, the Delhi-Amritsar Express, Shan-e-Punjab and local passenger trains.

Deputy Commissioner C.G. Rajnikantan, Superintendent of Police Simardeep Singh and other officers of the Haryana Police and the Government Railway Police reached the spot and began investigation, a police spokesman said here.

"The rocket launchers were spotted by some people in the morning who immediately reported it to the police. On the complaint of the railway keyman, a case has been registered against unknown persons under the Explosives Act," the spokesman said.

Local authorities sought the help of bomb experts from the army. The material was removed from the tracks.

Railway traffic on the route was restored around noon.