Rescue operations were under way on Sunday after several cars of a Hazara Express train derailed and some overturned near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah, Sindh province.

Local television showed rescue teams extracting women, children and elderly passengers from damaged and overturned cars. Some of the injured were lying on the ground crying for help while locals gave out water and food.

“This is quite a big accident,” Minister of Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique told reporters on Sunday. “According to the information so far, 28 passengers have been killed and many are injured.”

Senior police officer Abid Baloch said women and children were among the dead and injured.

About 50 people were injured in the accident, Muqarrab Khan, a local police officer from the Sanghar district of Sindh, told the dpa news agency.

Mohsin Sayal, a senior railway officer, said train traffic was suspended on the main railway line as repair trains were dispatched to the scene. Sayal said alternative travel arrangements and medical care would be made available for the train’s passengers.

Train crashes often happen on poorly maintained railways tracks in Pakistan, where colonial-era communications and signal systems have not been modernised and safety standards are poor.