At least 233 people have been killed and 900 injured after two passenger trains collided in India's Odisha state, a government official said on Saturday, making the rail accident the country's deadliest in more than a decade.
The death toll from Friday's crash was expected to rise, the state's Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said on Twitter.
He added that more than 200 ambulances had been called to the scene of the accident in Odisha's Balasore district and 100 additional doctors, on top of 80 already there, had been mobilised.
Early on Saturday morning, Reuters video footage showed police officials moving bodies covered in white cloths off the railway tracks.
Video footage from Friday showed rescuers climbing up one of the mangled trains to find survivors, while passengers called for help and sobbed next to the wreckage.
Authorities have provided conflicting accounts on which train derailed first to become entangled with the other.
The Ministry of Railways said it has begun an investigation.
Although Chief Secretary Jena and some media reports have suggested a freight train was also involved in the crash, railway authorities have yet to comment on that possibility.
An extensive search-and-rescue operation has been mounted, involving hundreds of fire department personnel and police officers as well as sniffer dogs. National Disaster Response Force teams were also at the site.
On Friday, hundreds of young people lined up outside a government hospital in Odisha's Soro to donate blood.
According to Indian Railways, its network facilitates the transportation of over 13 million people every day. But the state-run monopoly has had a patchy safety record due to ageing infrastructure.
Odisha's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared a day of state mourning on June 3 as a mark of respect to the victims.
