At least 65 people were killed and over 200 others injured when a freight train hit an express train after the latter derailed following a sabotage of the railway tracks by suspected extreme left-wing Naxal rebels in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal early Friday morning, said police.

At least 65 people were killed when a speeding goods train rammed into a derailed coach of a passenger train in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, May 28, 2010. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

The incident happened at 01:30 a.m. when the Mumbai-bound Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express was running between the Khemasoli and Sardiya stations near Jhargram area in the state.

The two trains collided after the blast hit the express train and flung five of its 13 derailed coaches into the path of the speeding goods train coming from the opposite direction.

West Bengal Police chief Bhupinder Singh told the media in state capital Kolkata that the Naxalites were behind the incident.

"We suspect the hand of Naxalites as a section of the rail track was found missing and fishplates were loosened," he said, adding that posters of Naxalite organizations have been found at the site.

Local TV channels showed footage of Indian Air Force choppers ferrying the injured from the accident site to the hospitals and the five mangled compartments of the express train, even as rescue workers trying to free survivors from the wreckage and bringing out the bodies of the deceased.

Indian Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has rushed to the spot and is overseeing the rescue operations, along with several senior railway and police officials.