Eight killed in train collision in central India

At least eight people were killed and several injured when a passenger train collided with a goods train in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, officials said.

The goods train was stationary at the time of the accident, and the passenger train crashed into it from behind, damaging the passenger train's first few carriages, Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao told reporters.

Television footage showed the mangled first carriage of the passenger train partially perched atop the last carriage of the goods train, as police and rescue teams tried to pull out survivors and a crowd watched from the parallel tracks.

Railway authorities said there would be a detailed inquiry into the incident.

India's railway network is the fourth largest in the world and has been undergoing a $30 billion transformation with new trains and modern stations. Rail accidents, however, are not uncommon in the country, which saw one of its worst such collisions in recent years in 2023, when three trains collided in the southern state of Odisha, killing 288 people.