Lucknow/New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured when 14 coaches of the Howrah-Kalka Express went off the rails in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh Sunday noon, police said.


"Twenty bodies have been recovered...it won't be surprising if more than 50 people are killed as many bodies are still trapped inside the mangled coaches," Special Director General of Police Brij Lal told IANS.

Coaches were being cut with gas cutters and more than 200 policemen were conducting rescue operations, he added.

The train, carrying about 1,000 passengers, was bound for Kalka in Haryana and was travelling at 108 km an hour when it went off the rails at Malwa station in Fatehpur, about 150 km from Lucknow.

According to Senior Development Operations Manager of North Central Railways (NCR) Pradeep Ojha: "A number of people are still trapped in the 14 coaches that jumped the rails as the train was about to touch Malwa station around 12.20 p.m. today (Sunday)."

All the injured have been rushed to Fatehpur district hospital, about 17 km away from the accident site.

"This train was going almost at full speed at 108 km at Malwa station and skidded inside the station territory. About 10 coaches are in badly crushed condition," NCR general manager Harish Chandra Joshi told NDTV.

More than 100 people are likely to be injured, he added.

He said the local villagers helped the station staff and policemen to shift the injured to hospital.

Joshi added that two relief trains - from Kanpur and Allahabad - have been sent to the spot.

"Apart from this, a special train from Kanpur will reach Malwa station...to take the passengers who are unaffected by the accident for their onward journey to Delhi," Joshi added.

India's railroad network is one of the largest in the world and carries about 14 million passengers a day.