At least 50 people are feared dead and hundreds of others have been injured after three trains were involved in a crash in eastern India.

A passenger train derailed and collided with another passenger train which then hit a goods train in Odisha’s Balasore district.

Rescuers were attempting to free 200 people feared trapped in the derailed coaches, D B Shinde, the Balasore district administrator in Odisha state said.

The Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, derailed after the collision and fell on the opposite track.

Speaking from India, Sky reporter Neville Lazarus said the crash took place at around 7.30pm local time and that all hospitals in the Balasore district have been put on high alert.

He said the trains involved in the crash run along important routes which are “one of the main artery tracks” of the eastern side of the country’s network and added that a number of high profile officials have been sent to the scene to coordinate rescue operations.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi said he is “distressed” by the accident and said rescue operations are underway at the site.

Photos from the scene show people trying to escape from a toppled vehicle.

Pradeep Jena, Odisha’s chief secretary, said: “Nearly 50 ambulances have reported but the injured appear far too many. Large (number) of buses being mobilised to shift injured to hospital.”

A railroad ministry spokesperson, Amitabh Sharma, said mangled pieces of the derailed train fell on to a nearby track and were hit by another passenger train coming in the opposite direction.

More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 40,000 miles of track.