BHOPAL: Two trains collided in bad weather in central India on Monday in an early morning accident that left 13 dead and dozens injured, railway and police officials told AFP.

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

"So far 13 people have been found dead and as many as 50 injured," local railway manager Ghanshyam Singh told AFP. "Relief operations are on while the injured are being admitted to nearby hospitals."

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

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: 1232 HRS, September 20, 2010