At least twelve people are now known to have been killed, and more than a hundred injured in a train crash south of Chicago in the United States.

Rescue teams are still searching for bodies among the wreckage of the train, which was travelling from Chicago to New Orleans when it collided with a truck carrying steel on a railway crossing late on Monday.

Most of the dead were found in a sleeping car near the front of the train. Local officials said they were investigating whether gates and lights designed to prevent collisions on the crossing were working at the time of the crash.