Death toll hits 146

Rescuers yesterday ended their search for survivors amongst the twisted remains of a derailed train as the death toll from one of India's worst rail disasters rose to 146.

Parts of the train were mangled beyond recognition when the Indore-Patna Express derailed, sending carriages crashing into each other in the early hours of Sunday in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Rescuers worked through the night, picking through the wreckage with sniffer dogs in hopes of finding more survivors.

But they called off the search yesterday afternoon as the last of the carriages was removed from the tracks.

"There is no hope for more survivors," said Anil Shekhawat, spokesman for the National Disaster Response Force.

Another 179 people are being treated in hospital, 60 of whom are in a serious condition, a spokesman for Indian railways told AFP.

At least 2,000 people are believed to have been on the train at the time -- many travelling without reserved seats or any ticket at all.

A fracture in the track is thought to have caused the train to derail at around 3 am (2130 GMT Saturday), and Railways minister Suresh Prabhu has promised a thorough investigation.

India's railway network, one of the world's largest, is still the main form of long-distance travel in the vast country, but it is poorly funded and deadly accidents occur relatively frequently.

A 2012 government report said almost 15,000 people were killed every year on India's railways and described the loss of life as an annual "massacre".