BHOPAL: Twenty-two people were killed and dozens more injured when two trains collided in central India on Monday, officials said, in the latest fatal smash on the country`s vast rail network.

The crash occurred in the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, some 350 kilometres (220 miles) from state capital Bhopal, when a goods train smashed into a passenger train waiting at a station in heavy, early morning rain.

"So far we have extricated 20 bodies from the train and are tackling one carriage where two bodies are visible," area railways chief Ghanshyam Singh told AFP from the scene of the accident in Badarwas station.

A railway spokesman in Bhopal, K.K. Dubey, said 50 people were injured, of which 18 had been taken to hospital.

Television pictures showed several badly damaged carriages, one of which had been lifted up off the tracks by the force of the collision. One rescuer was seen cutting into the mangled steel with a blowtorch.

India`s Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee described the crash as "most unfortunate" as she announced compensation for the families of those who lost their lives and the injured.

An investigation will be held into how the crash happened, with the preliminary report due within two weeks, the government said, amid initial indications that the goods train overshot a signal.

Singh told the domestic Press Trust of India news agency that railway police had been asked to look for staff from the Badarwas station who had gone missing after the incident.

The probe would also look into media reports that alcohol was found in the station manager`s office in contravention of strict rules, Singh was quoted as saying.

India`s state-run railway system -- still the main form of long-distance travel despite fierce competition from new private airlines -- carries 18.5 million people daily.

There are hundreds of incidents on the railways every year, with two major crashes this year.

In May, nearly 150 people were killed when a Mumbai-bound high-speed passenger express from Kolkata veered off the tracks into the path of an oncoming freight train after the track had apparently been sabotaged.

In July, more than 60 people were killed and 165 injured when a speeding express rammed into the back of a stationary passenger train in the eastern state of West Bengal.

The worst accident in India was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.

BDST: 1712 HRS, September 20, 2010