NEW DELHI – At least 60 people have been and 100 injured when several carriages of an Indian express train derailed in northern Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, with the toll set to rise amid a desperate scramble to locate survivors from the mangled wreck, senior railway officials said.

Fourteen carriages of the train, travelling between the northeastern city of Patna and the central city of Indore, were thrown off track in Pukhrayan, 65 kilometres south of Kanpur city, according to railway officials.

TV footage showed badly mangled blue carriages, with crowds of people and police on top of the wreckage searching for survivors. One carriage was almost lying on its side, and appeared to have been completely torn apart.

(Photo: ANI/ via Reuters TV)

Rescue officials with yellow helmets were working their way through the crowds, carrying victims from the mangled wreckage as teams struggled to remove the derailed wagons from the tracks, one of the main transportation routes for goods and passengers in northern India.

“Still many more passengers are trapped,” Anil Saxena, a senior railway official in New Delhi told Reuters.

The packed train, operated by the Indian government, derailed in the early hours of Sunday when more than 500 passengers were sleeping, survivors said.

“Suddenly I could feel that the carriage was overturning. I immediately held the metal rod near the bathroom door,” said Faizal Khan who was travelling with his wife and two children, all of whom survived the accident.

Two senior police officials in Kanpur said their teams have been able to pull out 60 bodies from the badly damaged carriages.

“Our aim is to rush all the injured to the hospital in the next two hours and we are seeking help from private hospitals,” said additional director general Daljeet Singh Choudhary.

Buses are being pressed into service to help passengers complete their journey, Singh said.

– Reuters