Eight die in Pakistan train crash

The train was on its way to Karachi from Peshawar

At least eight people have been killed and about 100 injured in a rail accident in Pakistan's southern Sindh Province.

Railway officials said that several carriages of an express train derailed and three of them overturned near the town of Kotri, 100km (60 miles) north of the port city of Karachi.

The train was travelling from Peshawar in the North West Frontier province to Karachi.

Reports say at least five people were killed instantly and several others died on the way to hospital.

An emergency was declared at the local hospital, with several of the injured in a critical condition.

Some were moved to the nearby city of Hyderabad.

Ambulance workers were still working at the scene of the accident, where several passengers were believed to be trapped under the wreckage.

Police officials said they expected the death toll to rise as the carriages were inspected.

System in decline

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

Correspondents say that Pakistan's military rulers took over the country's railway system last year after several years of decline.

There have been dozens of accidents over the past decade, which have killed nearly 2,000 people.

Two passenger trains collided in Sindh province in 1989 killing 850.

And in 1997, 126 people died in an accident in the eastern Punjab province.