Twenty-two people were killed and dozens more injured when two trains collided in central India on Monday, officials said, in the latest fatal smash on the country's vast rail network. The crash occurred in the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, some 350 kilometres (220 miles) from state capital Bhopal, when a goods train smashed into a passenger train waiting at a station in heavy, early morning rain.
"So far we have extricated 20 bodies from the train and are tackling one carriage where two bodies are visible," area railways chief Ghanshyam Singh told AFP from the scene of the accident in Badarwas station. A railway spokesman in Bhopal, K.K. Dubey, said 50 people were injured, of which 18 had been taken to hospital.
Television pictures showed several badly damaged carriages, one of which had been lifted up off the tracks by the force of the collision. One rescuer was seen cutting into the mangled steel with a blowtorch. India's Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee described the crash as "most unfortunate" as she announced compensation for the families of those who lost their lives and the injured.
An investigation will be held into how the crash happened, with the preliminary report due within two weeks, the government said, amid initial indications that the goods train overshot a signal.
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