At least 288 people have died and 900 injured in a collision between two passenger trains in the Indian state of Odisha, a government official said Saturday in what was the country’s deadliest rail accident in more than a decade.

The death toll from Friday’s plane crash is expected to rise, Chief Secretary of State Pradeep Jena tweeted.

He added that more than 200 ambulances were called to the scene in Balasore district of Odisha state and 100 more doctors were mobilized in addition to the 80 already there.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, a Reuters video shows police carrying bodies covered in white sheets from train tracks.

Video filmed Friday shows rescuers climbing aboard one of the wrecked trains to search for survivors as passengers called for help and wept near the wreckage.

The collision happened around 19:00. local time (4:30 p.m. GREECE) on Friday when the Howrah super-fast express train from Bangalore to Howrah in West Bengal collided with the Coromandel Express en route from Calcutta to Chennai.

Authorities provided conflicting accounts of which train derailed first to entangle with another. The Ministry of Railways said that an investigation had been launched into the incident.

Although Mr. Yena and some media outlets claimed that freight train also involved in the accident, the railroad authorities have yet to comment on this possibility.

An extensive search and rescue operation was carried out involving hundreds of firefighters and police officers, as well as search dogs. Units of the National Disaster Response Service also arrived at the scene.

On Friday, hundreds of young people lined up in front of the government hospital in Soro, Odisha state, to donate blood.

According to Indian Railways, their network transports more than 13 million people daily. But the security record of the state monopoly is mixed due to aging infrastructure.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared Saturday a day of mourning in respect for the victims.

Source: Reuters, APE-MPE, ERT.