Dozens Killed After Train Derails In India

At least 35 people have been killed and more than 100 others injured when an express train derailed in northern India.

The train was on its way to New Delhi from a station near Kolkata when its 12 carriages and engine jumped the tracks in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The derailed carriages were left stacked on top of each other, television pictures showed, as rescue teams worked to free the victims.

While scores of people were quickly extracted and taken to hospital, many others remained trapped in the mangled carriages.

"we were sitting in our seats when suddenly everything turned upside down," one male passenger told Indian TV.

"When the train stopped we broke the glass windows to jump out on the track."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his "deep sorrow and shock at the loss of lives".

He promised all available resources in the area would be deployed for the rescue and relief operations.

Last Thursday, 38 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh when a train slammed into a bus carrying a wedding party.

India's state-run railway system, which is still the main form of long-distance travel despite competition from the airlines, carries 18.5 million people every day.

The worst accident in India was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.

The railway is the country's largest employer with 1.4 million people on its payroll, and it runs 11,000 trains a day.

The creaking Indian train system is the world's second largest under a single management.

Experts say it is desperately in need of new investment to help end transportation bottlenecks that threaten the country's fast economic growth.