At least 50 people were feared dead after two passenger trains collided in India's eastern state of West Bengal early Monday, dpa reported according to officials news reports.
One of the trains rammed into the back of a stationary train at a railway station in the Birbhum district, some 200 kilometres north of state capital Kolkata, NDTV network reported.
Senior railway official S Sahoo said more than 50 people had been killed, while other officials confirmed that at least 32 people had died.
"We have recovered 32 bodies so far," district's senior official Soumitra Mohan told the IANS news agency. "More than 70 injured have been rescued," he added.
NDTV reported 50 passengers had been killed and 35 bodies had been recovered in rescue operations.
But other newschannels said between 70 and 100 passengers had been killed in the crash that occurred at 2 am (2030 GMT Sunday).
The impact was so strong that the roof of one of the coaches was thrown over a nearby railway bridge.
Relief operations were underway and rescue teams were using gas-cutters to cut open the coaches and retrieve the bodies and rescue the injured.
The railway accident occurred two months after another train collision killed nearly 150 people in West Bengal. The incident was blamed on sabotage on part of Maoist rebels in the region.