At least 119 people were killed and more than 150 injured when an Indian express train derailed in northern state of Uttar Pradesh today.
Railway officials said the toll may rise amid a desperate scramble to locate survivors from the mangled wreck.
Police officials said people were still missing as authorities tried to ascertain what caused 14 carriages of the train travelling between the northeastern city of Patna and the central city of Indore to suddenly roll off the tracks in Pukhrayan, 65 km south of Kanpur city.
TV footage showed badly mangled blue carriages, with crowds of people and police on top of the wreckage searching for survivors.
One carriage was almost lying on its side, and appeared to have been completely torn apart.
Rescue officials with yellow helmets were working their way through the crowds, carrying victims from the wreckage as teams struggled to remove the derailed wagons from the tracks, one of the main transportation routes for goods and passengers in northern India.
"Still many more passengers are trapped," Anil Saxena, a senior railway official in New Delhi, said.
The packed train, operated by the Indian government, derailed in the early hours of Sunday morning when many passengers were sleeping, survivors said.
Two senior police officials in Kanpur said their teams have been able to pull out 60 bodies from the badly damaged carriages.
"Our aim is to rush all the injured to the hospital in the next two hours and we are seeking help from private hospitals," an official said.
The death count is likely to rise as rescuers look through the wreckage, according to witnesses and officials.
"I can see bodies lying near the tracks, everyone is in a state of shock. There is no water or food for us," a survivor said.
Suresh Prabhu, India's Railways Minister, said in a tweet the government would immediately investigate the causes of the derailment and promised accountability with the "strictest possible action."
Mr Prabhu said the government would offer 350,000 rupees (€4850) to families of the dead, as well as 50,000 rupees in case of grievous injury and 25,000 in case of simple injury.
Rescue efforts are under way after at least 90 people were killed when a train derailed in India https://t.co/snIxAjP86C pic.twitter.com/uPqVdQ020B
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 20, 2016
India's creaking railway system is the world's fourth largest, ferrying more than 20 million people each day, but it has a poor safety record, with thousands of people dying in accidents every year, including in frequent train derailments.
Derailments and accidents have been a frequent occurrence, including an incident in Uttar Pradesh - India's most populous state - in March last year that killed 39 people.
Heavy rains in the eastern state of Andhra Pradesh in 2005 caused a train to derail, with some carriages plunging into a river, killing more than 100.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who started out selling tea outside a train station, has promised to modernise India's railways and build high-speed engines befitting Asia's third-largest economy.
This morning, Mr Modi took to Twitter to express his condolences.
"Anguished beyond words on the loss of lives due to the derailing of the Patna-Indore express. My thoughts are with the bereaved families," he said.
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