A CARGO train rammed into a passenger train in India’s eastern state of West Bengal today, killing at least eight people and injuring several others, officials said.

Doctors, disaster-response teams and ambulances were at the site in the Darjeeling district, the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in a post on the X social media platform.

Three of the eight dead were railway personnel, said Sabyasachi De, the spokesperson of the Northeast Frontier Railway. Nearly 50 people were hospitalised.

Television channels showed footage of one train rammed into the end of the other, with one compartment rising vertically in the air. Many people gathered as rescuers searched through the debris.

The driver of the cargo train, who was among the dead, disregarded a signal and caused the collision, Mr De said. 

Four compartments at the rear of the passenger train had derailed due to the impact, he said, saying most of the cars were carrying cargo while one was a passenger coach.

Mr De said workers were in the process of restoring the damaged tracks and removing the derailed coaches. The rest of the coaches continued to their original destination of Kolkata, the state’s capital, he said.

Last year, a train crash in eastern India killed over 280 people in one of the country’s deadliest accidents in decades.