Fifty-three people were killed in central India on Thursday when a train collided with a tractor pulling a trailer that was crammed with people returning from a wedding, police said. "Fifty-three people have died. We fear the death toll could go up," said a police official from near the site of the accident at Kanan village, 688km east of Bombay in Maharashtra state. About 20 were injured and many of them were in a critical condition, the official said, who did not want to be identified.
The tractor's trailer was carrying more than 70 people who had attended a marriage ceremony. They were hit by the train at an unmanned level crossing, the official said. The dead included 30 women, 18 children and five men. "The people travelling in the train coaches are largely unhurt," Indian Railways Spokesman Santosh Kumar said. The injured were taken to hospital in Kanan.
Senior railway officials and police brass rushed to the site as workers cleared the tracks.