A passenger train has derailed in the northern Indian
state of Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 30 people, a railway spokesman told
the BBC.
The engine and two carriages of the Janta Express, which
travels between Dehradun and Varanasi, went off the rails near Bachhrawan
village.
Several dozen people were also injured in the accident,
officials said.
Villagers, police and railway guards are trying to rescue
passengers trapped in the carriages.
Images from the scene show mangled carriages lying beside
the track.
The state's junior railway minister Manoj Sinha said an
inquiry has been ordered to find out what caused the accident.
India's railway network operates 12,000 passenger trains and
carries some 23 million passengers every day.
But there have been numerous train accidents in India in
recent years, killing hundreds of people.
Last month, at least 11 people died after three coaches of
the Bangalore-Ernakulam Intercity Express derailed in the southern state of
Karnataka.
A BBC correspondent in Delhi says the state-run railway
network has a patchy safety record - there has been little investment in
upgrading decaying tracks and signals and the country lags behind on
anti-collision technologies.
The decades of neglect, low investment and subsidised
fares have left the network in a shambles, our correspondent adds.
In the railway budget announced last month, the Indian
government unveiled plans to invest $137bn (£88bn) in the ageing railway
network over the next five years to help modernise it.
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