NEW DELHI (AP) — A passenger train crashed into a cargo train in central India Tuesday, killing at least eight people and injuring several others, a senior government official said.

The incident happened near the city of Bilaspur, about 70 miles northeast of Chhattisgarh’s state capital of Raipur. Local television channels showed images of one train colliding with another. Rescuers were searching through the debris for survivors.

The local passenger train hit the cargo train from behind, and one of the coaches ended up on top of a wagon of the cargo train, senior government official Sanjay Agarwal told The Associated Press.

More casualties were feared because “two or three” additional passengers were trapped inside the mangled coach and feared dead, said Agarwal, who is the government administrator for Bilaspur. After hours of struggle, the rescue team pulled down the passenger train’s damaged coach and were using a crane and iron cutters to try to cut it open, he said.

Among those declared dead was the locomotive driver of the passenger train while its co-pilot, a woman, was critically injured and admitted to a private hospital, Agarwal said.