15 die in India deadly train crash

At least 15 people have been killed and 25 injured when a passenger train collided with a goods train in India's Andhra Pradesh state.

The Bangalore-bound Hampi Express crashed into the stationary goods train at Penneconda railway station early on Tuesday, a railway spokesperson said.

Four coaches were derailed and one of them caught fire, reports say.

Train accidents in India have killed 1,220 people over the past five years, railway officials recently revealed.

The immense railway network connects every corner of the country, operating 9,000 passenger trains a day, arrying some 18 million people.

Durga Das, a senior official of Anantapur district where the incident happened, said 18 passengers had been rescued from the Hampi Express. Rescue workers fear that more passengers may be trapped in the train.

A railway spokesperson told the Press Trust of India news agency that it was not yet clear what caused the accident but "the driver of Hampi Express [may have] overshot the signal".

India has set up a $3.6bn (£2.4bn) railway safety fund to make travelling safer for millions of passengers who use the transport network every year.

-BBC