At least 12 people were killed and 60 injured when a passenger express train derailed in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, a railway official said today.
Eight coaches were derailed when a small bridge over a dried-up river-bed collapsed near Sibi, some 100 kilometres southeast of the provincial capital Quetta.
"I can confirm the death of 12 passengers although the toll could be more than that," the Chief Controller of Railways, Mr Jalil-ur-Rehman, told reporters, adding that 10 of those injured were in a serious condition.
Mr Rehman said rail links between Quetta and the rest of the country had been cut because of the accident.
The single track between Quetta and Sibi was built by British colonial rulers in the 1880s and goes through 17 tunnels as it crosses the hilly terrain. These days Pakistan's rail network is in desperate need of investment.