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Updated: Jun 25, 2019 20:19 IST

An engineer and two technicians were killed Tuesday afternoon after the Howrah-Jagadalpur Samaleswari Express rammed into a maintenance engine in Odisha’s Rayagada district, police said.

Four other railway officials who were in Samaleswari Express were injured after its engine caught fire following the collision. The site of accident is about 400 km south of the capital Bhubaneswar.

Rayagada superintendent of police Dr Vivek Saravana said the Samaleswari Express rammed into the tower car or maintenance engine between Singapur Road and Keutguda stations at around 4.30 pm. The tower car was undergoing some routine maintenance work.

“The maintenance engine suffered major damage. We recovered three bodies from the engine. The engine of the Samaleswari Express also caught fire resulting in injury to four railway officials. One of them has suffered extensive burn injuries,” said Dr Saravana.

The deceased were identified as Sagar, senior section engineer (electrical) and electrical technicians Gouri Naidu and Suresh.

Fire engines from Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh were rushed to the accident site to extinguish the blaze. Raygada is a heavily forested area with Maoist presence,

The front guard-cum-luggage van and one general second class coach of Samaleswari Express derailed under the impact of the collision. However, officials of East Coast Railway zone said none of the 148 passengers in the train were injured. They were being ferried to Koraput and Jagdalpur station in buses.

Station masters on duty at Keutaguda and Singapur Road were immediately suspended. The Railways has also ordered an enquiry by Commissioner of Railway Safety, Kolkata into the incident.

Railway officials said the engine of the Samaleswari Express was detached while the other coaches were sent back to Rayagada.

The incident has raised questions on how Samaleswari Express was cleared to proceed when the tower car was already engaged in maintenance work on the same track. Union railways minister Piyush Goyal had repeatedly said that his goal was to reach zero accident standard.

There have been quite a few train accidents in Odisha this year. In May, a fire broke out in the generator car of New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express near Khantapada in Balasore district. However no injuries or casualties were reported. In April this year, two bogies of the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express decoupled on the Kathjodi river bridge in Cuttack.