27 dead after two India trains derail in floods

New Delhi

Two passenger trains derailed after flash floods struck a bridge they were crossing in central India, killing at least 27 people in the latest deadly accident on the nation's crumbling rail network, officials said.

Rescuers searched through the night for passengers trapped in the trains that toppled after a surge of water from a nearby rain-swollen river struck the tracks in Madhya Pradesh state.

Some 300 people were rescued after 10 of the trains' carriages and one engine derailed minutes apart outside the town of Harda close to midnight on Tuesday, police and other officials said.

The Kamayani Express, travelling from the financial city of Mumbai, derailed just minutes after a surge of water from the Machak river sank the tracks on a small bridge, chairman of the railway board A.K. Mittal said.

The Janata Express, coming the other way from the eastern city of Patna to Mumbai, crossed shortly after, railway ministry spokesman Anil Saxena told Indian television.

Passengers said they were thrown awake by the falling carriages, which quickly filled with muddy water.

"I was sleeping and suddenly I felt a jolt. I woke up and saw that all the passengers were screaming and running," Manoj Mongi told the Hindustan Times newspaper's website.

"I came out. I saw three women floating, but I could not save them," he added.

"The water level on the track was almost waist-high," Shashi Bhushan Pandit, another passenger, added.

The government has ordered an inquiry into the cause of the accident, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his sadness at the loss of life.

"Authorities are doing everything possible on the ground. The situation is being monitored very closely," Modi said on Twitter.