Kolkata, Jan 15 (IANS) The West Bengal CID on Tuesday recovered at least 689 endangered Indian soft-shell river turtles and arrested four persons in this connection, an official said.

Based on prior information, the CID team apprehended Lachman Kumar, 30, Raj Kumar, 25, Sushil Kumar, 20, and Raju Kumar, 30, of Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur district while they were on-board the Doon Express.

They were arrested before they could dispose off the consignment in Hooghly district's Bandel.

They were coming from Varanasi with the endangered turtles. The seized turtles, and the arrested persons have been handed over to the range officer of Durgapur division for legal action, officials said.

--IANS bnd/pgh/bg