Local media showed images of the pile-up, with containers from the goods train strewn on the tracks and one carriage nearly vertical in the air in the accident, which followed one a year ago that was the worst in more than 20 years.
The state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in a post on social media platform X that a cargo train had collided with Kanchanjunga Express in the state’s Darjeeling district. She said doctors, disaster-response teams and ambulances were engaged in rescue work at the site. “Action on war-footing initiated,” she said.
“So far, five people are dead and we have rescued 25 to 30 injured,” Abhishek Roy, a senior police official in the eastern state’s district of Darjeeling, where the accident happened, told news agency ANI.
“Their injuries are not fatal. We have rescued them with their luggage.”
Television channels showed visuals of one train rammed into the end of the other. Swarms of people had gathered at the spot, where rescuers were searching the crash site, which occurred close to the New Jalpaiguri station.
Railway officials said more people were feared trapped inside the mangled carriages, but there were no immediate details.
Chances of a large number of casualties were reduced, however, since two of the three derailed carriages of the express train were laden with goods, said a railway official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
What led to the collision was not immediately clear.
The Kanchanjunga Express is a daily train that connects West Bengal state with other cities in the northeast. It is often used by tourists who travel to the hill station of Darjeeling, popular at this time of year when several Indian cities are sweltering in the heat.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India daily, travelling on 64,000km (40,000 miles) of track. Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents happen annually on India’s railways. Most are blamed on human error or outdated signalling equipment.
Last year, a train crash in eastern India killed over 280 people in one of the country’s deadliest rail crashes in decades.
Additional reporting by Reuters