Services going opposite ways run off track at same point in Madhya Pradesh state after heavy rains and flooding

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

At least 29 people have been killed in central India after two express trains derailed within minutes of each other during flash floods that undermined tracks.

The accident occurred late on Tuesday night, amid heavy monsoon rains. Hundreds of people were rescued but local media said 10 members of one family, including five children, were among the dead.

Television images showed crumpled train coaches piled together. Several were partially submerged in mud.

One of the trains was on its way to Mumbai when the accident happened in a remote area of the central Madhya Pradesh state, while the other was travelling in the opposite direction.

The railway minister, Suresh Prabhu, said floodwaters had weakened the tracks. The prima facie cause of the incident is stated to be flash floods due to heavy rains,” he told parliament.

The head of the railway board, AK Mittal, told reporters there was no time to warn the trains. “Ten minutes back at this spot, train movement was normal. There was no problem,” Mittal said.

Heavy monsoon rains and the tail-end of a cyclone have killed more than 100 people across India in flooding, landslides and building collapses in recent days.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A locomotive and a carriage lie side by side at the crash scene outside Harda in Madhya Pradesh state. Photograph: AFP/Getty

The crash has reignited criticism about safety failures on the world’s fourth-largest rail network. A former railway minister said the accident could have been avoided if tracks had been maintained.

“It’s totally unacceptable. It’s a symptom of a deep-rooted cancer in the railway system,” Dinesh Trivedi, from the opposition Trinamool Congress party, told reporters.

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, said the situation was “deeply distressing”.

Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) The two train accidents in Madhya Pradesh are deeply distressing. Deeply pained over the loss of lives. Condolences to families of deceased.

Witnesses described hours of delays before any first aid was given to victims. “People were screaming and struggling in the dark,” Ankit Chowksey told the Times of India. “A lot of people have been killed and injured but there was no first aid in the train. Not even in the AC coaches. It was only at 3.30 am … that three or four nurses and two doctors were made available.”

Accidents like these occur relatively frequently. In March, more than 30 people died after three coaches of a passenger train derailed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

About 15,000 people are killed each year on India’s level crossings. Hundreds die falling from often overcrowded trains.

Trains are still the most popular mode of long-distance travel in the vast country, but the network has suffered decades of underfunding. Its 1.25 million employees run 17,000 trains carrying up to 25 million people every day.

India’s government has pledged to invest £88bn ($137bn) to modernise the network, but any improvements will take years. There are plans to introduce bullet trains.

Indian trains today average less than 37mph (60km/h) which, though an improvement on 30mph several decades ago, puts them among the slowest in the world.