At least 100 people have been killed and about 150 injured after a train derailed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The accident happened during the wee hours of Sunday morning when most passengers were asleep. Rescue operations are being carried out by local police, doctors and the country's National Disaster Response Force.

Rescuers work on the site of a train derailment accident in Kanpur Dehat, India, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016. Many were killed Sunday when 14 coaches of an overnight passenger train rolled off the track in northern India, with rescue workers using cutting torches to try to pull out survivors, police said.

Fourteen carriages of the Patna-Indore express were thrown off track near Kanpur city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Bodies were pulled out from under the badly damaged carriages while the injured were admitted in the nearby hospitals.

"Rescue work is in full swing. We have found more bodies. We will use cutters and instruments to see if there are any survivors," Zaki Ahmad, inspector gernal of Police Kanpur Zone, said.

Survivors have joined hands with the police to search for others who might be alive still alive under the wreckage. They say they are luck to be safe.

"All of a sudden, there was a massive jerk. Our head collided with the roof of a coach after it derailed. We were safe in the S-5 coach. We tried to open the door but could not," Witness Ravindra Pathak said.

Right now the reasons for the derailment are unknown but government agencies are investigating into the cause of it.

"It is a big accident. Even the rail line is broken. We have sent survivors to their destinations," Kanpur divisional commissioner Mohammad Iftekharuddin said.

Indian railways is the lifeline of people in India but it has a bad track record when it comes to safety.