High-speed passenger train kills 7 elephants crossing railway tracks in northeast India

Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early Saturday, local authorities said

Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early Saturday, local authorities said.

The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told The Associated Press.

Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said.

Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day.

The accident site is a forested area around 78 miles southeast of Assam’s capital city of Guwahati. Railway tracks in the state are frequented by elephants, but Indian Railways said in a statement the accident location wasn’t a designated elephant corridor.