Indian express train crashed killing 27

Two passenger trains collided head-on in northern India on Tuesday, killing at least 27 people and injuring 60, officials said.

Several coaches went off the tracks when the Jammu Tawi &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/society/2001/06/04/6844.html ' target=_blank>express crashed into a local train near Mukerian town in Punjab state at about noon, they said.

"There was chaos, people were screaming. Someone had broken a leg, others were lying near the derailed coaches with blood running down their heads," area resident Shyam Babbar told Reuters by phone.

"I saw smashed bodies in the damaged coaches. There was a woman and a small child next to her. Both were dead," he said, says ABC News.

A "communications snag" between stationmasters at two stations apparently caused the crash, with an express train and a local train allowed to travel toward each other on the same track, said Dharam Singh, the top railway official in the area.