Hyderabad, December 28
At least 26 passengers, including two children, were killed and 15 others injured when two air-conditioned coaches of an express train caught fire in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh today.

The passengers of the Bangalore-Nanded Express were fast asleep when fire broke out in one of the AC three-tier coaches around 3.45 am and soon spread to the adjoining coach. The disaster struck near Kothacheruvu railway station in Anantapur district bordering Karnataka.

The train had left Bengaluru at 10.45 pm yesterday for an overnight journey to Nanded in Maharashtra 830 km away.

Several passengers were trapped and suffocated after the doors of the burning coaches failed to open. The fire was reportedly caused by a faulty air-conditioning system. The driver managed to detach the burning coach from the rest of the train, about 2 km from the Kothacheruvu railway station. As thick smoke spread across the two coaches at 3.45 am, some passengers broke open the windows and jumped from the train.

More than a dozen were brought to hospitals with injuries.

"After jumping out, we tried to open the glass windows to help others. I tried to go back into the train to pull out others, but the flames were too large," said Srikanth, a survivor of the tragedy.

Railway spokesperson CS Gupta said that 67 passengers were in the two cars when the fire broke out.

Rescue workers retrieved the bodies that were charred beyond recognition. The bodies were shifted to Bangalore, where DNA tests would be conducted to establish the identity of victims. The dead, included two children, the railway officials said.

Forensic experts from Hyderabad visited the scene to collect evidence and the DNA samples. The injured were shifted to government-run hospitals in Dharmavaram, Penugonda and Puttaparthi towns in Anantapur district.

Witnesses said some passengers raised the alarm after seeing smoke. As most passengers were asleep, many got trapped in the thick smoke and could not crawl out.

Railway Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next kin of those killed in the mishap. The Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar said the cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained.