In Punjab, India, at least 100 people died as a result of a high-speed train plowed into the crowd gathered to watch the local festival. Hundreds of people were injured by the accident.

Punjabi police announced that the high-speed train plowed through the crowd to watch a festival at the railway station in the city of Amritsar.

It is thought 700 people were present at the celebration and an eyewitness said that the crowd could not hear the train coming. 

"The people were sitting on and near the tracks on the outskirts of Amritsar watching the burning of effigies as part of the Dusshera festival when a commuter train ran over them," a police officer said.

The effigy was being burned near railway tracks in Amritsar, Punjab, in honor of the major Hindu festival of dussehra, which is celebrated every autumn.

Police said the death toll could increase. (ILKHA)