Thirty six people are reported dead and many others injured after a train derailed in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

JP Mishra, the head of East Coast Railway, said that nine coaches and the engine left the tracks near Kuneru station in Vizianagaram district.

Many people are still trapped in the wreckage and rescuers warn that the death toll could rise.

It is not yet clear what caused the train to derail.

The area where the accident occurred is known as a Maoist hotbed.

Image source Wikimedia

JP Mishra said the injured had been taken to two nearby hospitals.

National railway spokesman Anil Saxena said emergency teams had worked through the night to try to locate survivors.

The crash happened on January 21 as the train was on its way from Jagdalpur to Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha state.

Train crashes are not unusual in India where much of the railway equipment is out of date.

In November 2016, more than 140 people were killed in a derailment in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state.