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Two express passenger trains collided in eastern India in the early hours of Monday morning, killing at least 50 people, television reports said.

One of the trains ploughed into the back of the other as it was standing at a station in Birbhum district, around 200 kilometers north of Kolkata, the

state capital of West Bengal.

Two news channels said between 50 and 70 people may have died, while the Headlines Today network put the toll as high as 100.

The accident occurred shortly before 2:00am (2030 GMT Sunday).

There was no immediate official confirmation of the number of dead.

"Casualties have taken place. I cannot give any number now. Rescue work has begun," Birbhum Superintendent of Police Humayun Kabir told the Press Trust of India.

The impact was so strong, that the main section of one train carriage had been flung over an overhanging railway bridge, television footage showed.

Rescue workers could be seen trying to cut their way into the mangled wreckage of other compartments that had imploded under the force of the crash.

The accident came less than two months after a train collision blamed on Maoist saboteurs killed nearly 150 people in West Bengal.

AFP/vm