Indian high-speed train hits and kills seven elephants

A high-speed train carrying 650 people has collided with and killed seven wild Asiatic elephants and injured a calf in northern India.

Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no reported human casualties, Kishore Sharma, Indian Railways spokesman said.

Local authorities say the incident happened in the early hours of Saturday morning in India's northeastern state of Assam.

Although the train driver spotted the hundred-strong herd crossing the track and used the train's emergency brakes, some of the elephants were still hit.

Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants which will be buried later in the day.

The Rajdhani Express train had been traveling from Mizoram state, which borders Myanmar, to the national capital of New Delhi.

The accident site is a forested area in Assam. Railway tracks in the state are often frequented by elephants, but Indian Railways said in a statement the accident location wasn't a designated elephant corridor.

Despite the impact, passengers in the carriages which didn't derail resumed their journey towards New Delhi.

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Around 200 passengers who were in the five derailed coaches were moved to Guwahati in a different train.

Speeding trains hitting wild elephants is not rare in Assam, which is home to an estimated 7,000 wild Asiatic elephants, one of the highest concentrations of the pachyderm in India.

Since 2020, at least a dozen elephants have been killed by speeding trains across the state.

Wild elephants often stray into human habitations this time of year, when rice fields are ready for harvesting.

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