At least 23 people have been killed after a busy train caught fire in INDIA

The train engulfed in flames in southern India. Photograph: EPA

At least 23 people have been killed after a busy train caught fire in southern India, railway officials say.

The train was on its way from the city of Bangalore to Nanded in the western state of Maharashtra in the early hours of Saturday. The driver stopped the train when he saw flames coming out of an air-conditioned coach at 3.45am. As the fire spread, many passengers broke windows and jumped from the train.

A rail spokesman, CS Gupta, said 67 passengers were in the two coaches when the fire broke out about a mile from the town of Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh state. The train was brought to a halt and the coaches were delinked from the rest of the train to prevent the fire spreading further.

Firefighters put out the blaze and retrieved at least 23 bodies, including two children. More than a dozen people were taken to hospital with injuries sustained when they jumped from the coaches, according to a railway official at the scene.

Firefighters had to force the doors open and make their way through the smoke-filled coaches to reach the dead. Many bodies were found near the jammed doors.

India's federal railways minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, said preliminary reports from the site indicated that the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit.

Accidents are common on India's rail network, one of the world's largest with 18.5 million passengers travelling daily. Collisions and fires are mostly blamed on poor maintenance and human error.