NEW DELHI (AP) — A passenger train crashed into a freight train in central India on Tuesday, killing at least five people and injuring several others, a senior government official said.
The incident occurred near Bilaspur, about 116 kilometers (72 miles) from the Chhattisgarh state capital, Raipur.
Television channels showed footage of one train colliding with another near the crash site. Rescuers are searching through the rubble for survivors.
A local passenger train hit a freight train from behind and overturned onto several cars, senior government official Sanjay Agarwal told The Associated Press.
“The rescue team is trying to break through the train to free some passengers trapped inside,” he said.
In a statement, network operator Indian Railways said it had committed all its resources to rescue efforts and transport the injured to local hospitals for treatment. The report states that an investigation into the cause of the accident has begun.
Train collisions are common in India, where the vast rail network faces challenges from aging infrastructure and human error.
More than 12 million people travel on India's 14,000 trains across 64,000 kilometers of track every day. Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur each year, some fatal, often blamed on human error or outdated signaling systems.
The 2023 derailment in the eastern part of the country killed more than 280 people in one of India's deadliest train accidents.
