At least 15 people have been killed and scores more injured after a passenger train derailed in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, officials have said.
Many people are feared to be trapped in the wreckage of 14 carriages of the Cormandel Express, which was carrying up to 1500 passengers when it crashed, Murlidhar Sahoo, a spokesman for eastern railways, said on Saturday.
The cause of the accident is unclear, but reports say the train was traveling at a very high speed.
Parts of the train, which connects the eastern metropolis of Kolkata and the southern city of Madras, came off the rails soon after it left Jajpur Road station near the city of Bhubaneswar.
The accident happened near the town of Jajpur, 100km north of the city of Bhubaneswar.
Eyewitness accounts
"It was very dark and I could hear the shouts of many for help. There was utter chaos," Anupam Nayak, a survivor of the accident, said.
"We were fortunate as several coaches, including the one adjacent to ours, not only derailed but overturned."
PTI said 150 people had been injured, quoting Manmohan Praharaj, the director general of police.
Rescue and medical teams from the Bhubaneswar headquarters of East Coast Railway were rushed to the accident site.
The railway system, one of the world's oldest and largest networks transporting at least 18.5 million people a day in India.
There are 300 accidents on the railways in India every year.
PHOTO CAPTION
People congregate around the derailed carriages of a train.
Al-Jazeera