At least 40 people have been killed and dozens injured when a packed Pakistani inter-city train ploughed into another express that had derailed earlier on Monday, officials said.
The death toll was likely to rise as rescuers struggled to reach people trapped in several mangled compartments strewn across the tracks near Daharki in a remote part of southern Sindh province
A Pakistan Railways spokesman said at least 33 bodies had been taken to hospitals, among them two railway officials. More than 100 people were injured.
"The site is far and that's why we are facing some trouble in the rescue work," he said, adding at least six wagons were destroyed in the accident.
Police officer Umar Tufail said the toll rose to 40, and that his men could see four more bodies stuck in the wreckage.
"We have not been able to take them out so far, but an operation is underway for that," he said.
Huge crowds of people gathered around the carnage of several overturned Pakistan Railways carriages, some climbing on top of the mangled wreckage in an attempt to reach survivors and bodies, in footage aired by local media.
Villagers were the first to rush to the site, with rescue workers later trying to cut their way through shredded and protruding metal.
Bodies were laid out in rows on train benches and covered in traditional scarves.
One clip showed medics giving an intravenous drip to a conscious passenger whose lower torso was trapped between crushed carriage benches.
An injured passenger, who had been travelling on the train that derailed, recounted how one calamity led to another.
Soldiers and volunteers work at the site of the train collision. Source: AP
"We felt as if we had been thrown away," the man, who had a bandaged head, told a television reporter from hospital, speaking of the initial derailing of his train.
"The second train then hit our train that caused more damage," he said.
The accident happened on a raised section of track surrounded by lush farmlands.
The Millat Express was heading from Karachi to Sargodha when it derailed before dawn, spilling carriages onto the track carrying the Sir Syed Express from Rawalpindi in the opposite direction.
"The driver tried to apply emergency brakes but the locomotive hit the infringing coaches," Pakistan Railways said in an initial report.
"The track has got issues on several points, the coaches are old, some as old as 40 years," railway official Khalid Latif told Geo News TV.
Prime minister 'shocked'
Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was "shocked" by the accident and promised a full inquiry.
"Ordering comprehensive investigation into railway safety fault lines," his official Twitter account said.
Lieutenant General Akhtar Nawaz Satti, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, told private TV channel ARY that the Pakistan army and paramilitary rangers had already reached the site from nearby bases to help with the operation.
Rail accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of kilometres of track and trains from former colonial power Britain.
But the network has seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.
More than 300 people were killed and 700 injured in 1990 when an overloaded 16-carriage inter-city train crashed into a stationary freight train near the city of Sukkur in Sindh.
More recently, at least 75 people died when a train caught fire while travelling from Karachi to Rawalpindi in October 2019.
