AT LEAST 22 people have been killed after a train crash in Madhya Pradesh in central India early this morning.

The head-on collision between a goods train and an intercity express passenger train standing on a platform as it waited to depart took place at the Phaderwah station and instantly killed many of the passengers on board.

It is understood that the freight train was on the wrong track.

A government official said rescue operations had recovered at least 20 bodies, and some of the critically injured had been airlifted to hospital.

Local villagers have assisted in rescuing passengers trapped inside the train; four passenger carriages are reported to have sustained major damage.

Authorities have begun an investigation into why both trains had ended up on the same track.

India’s railway network plays an enormous role in the country’s burgeoning services industries; its 9,000 passenger trains carry 18 million passengers every day.

Its sheer size at 63,327km means accidents are a regular feature, however: over 60 people were killed in a crash in July, while another 150 died in another crash between a passenger train and a goods train in May.