AKIPRESS.COM - The death toll from the collision of Indian passenger trains in Odisha state has surged to 288 and more than 850 are injured, a state government official told AFP on Saturday, making the rail accident the country's deadliest in more than two decades.

Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, also said that "rescue work is still going on" and there were "a lot of serious injuries", according to AFP.

Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said on Twitter that over 200 ambulances had been called to the scene of Friday's accident in Odisha's Balasore district and 100 additional doctors, on top of 80 already there, had been mobilised.

Early on Saturday morning, Reuters video footage showed police officials moving bodies covered in white cloths off the railway tracks.

"I was asleep," an unidentified male survivor told NDTV news. "I was woken up by the noise of the train derailing. Suddenly I saw 10-15 people dead. I managed to come out of the coach, and then I saw a lot of dismembered bodies."