Twelve people died and 15 others were injured when they got off a train after hearing rumours of a fire, only to be hit by another passing train in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
The incident took place at around 4.50pm local time on Wednesday. Passengers on the Pushpak Express panicked after a rumour spread that the train had caught fire and they pulled the emergency chain, bringing it to a stop.
Several of the passengers who disembarked from the right side were hit by the Karnataka Express coming from the opposite direction on a parallel track.
“Passengers from a coach of Pushpak Express disembarked and at the same time, a Karnataka Express train hit those people,” Central Railway spokesperson Swapnil Nila said.
Railways officials said there was no fire.
“Our preliminary information is that there were sparks inside one of the coaches of Pushpak Express due to either ‘hot axle’ or ‘brake-binding’, and some passengers panicked,” a senior Railways official told the news agency Press Trust of India.
A video posted on social media showed passengers screaming and crying after witnessing horrific scenes of dead bodies lying on the tracks.
Prime minister Narendra Modi said he was anguished by the tragic incident.
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and pray for the speedy recovery of all the injured. Authorities are providing all possible assistance to those affected,” he said.
The railways ministry and the Maharashtra state government announced compensation of Rs500,000 (£4,698) and Rs150,000 (£1,410), respectively, to the families of each of the deceased.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is in Davos for the World Economic Forum, said his colleagues in the government and the “entire district administration is working in coordination with the railway administration, and immediate arrangements are being made for the treatment of the injured”.
“The tragic incident of the loss of lives in a very unfortunate incident near Pachora in Jalgaon district is deeply distressing. I pay my heartfelt tributes to them,” he said.
Among those killed were three people from Nepal, The Indian Express reported.
The Indian government has been trying to modernise its extensive railway network, built during the British colonial era. However, frequent train accidents have raised questions over safety.
There were more than 100,000 train-related deaths in India from 2017 to 2021, according to a 2022 report published by the National Crime Records Bureau.
These included people falling off, dying in collisions, and getting mowed down by speeding trains on the tracks.
In 2023, more than 280 people were killed in one of the deadliest rail accidents in decades after two passenger trains collided in eastern India.