At least 50 people were killed and hundreds more were injured on Friday when two passenger trains derailed in India, officials said, according to The Associated Press.

About 400 people were taken to hospitals after the accident, which happened in eastern India, about 220 kilometers southwest of Kolkata, officials said.

The cause is unclear and remains under investigation.

Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde, the top administrator in the Balasore district, said at least 50 people were dead.

Nearly 500 police officers and rescue workers with 75 ambulances and buses responded to the accident, said Pradeep Jena, the top bureaucrat of the Odisha state.

Rescuers were attempting to free 200 people feared trapped in the wreckage, said D.B. Shinde, administrator of the state’s Balasore district.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the derailed Coromandel Express was traveling from Howrah in West Bengal state to Chennai, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu state, when the accident occurred.

Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India’s railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.

More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers of track.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)