The rescue efforts continued overnight in Kanpur’s Pukhrayan to pull out the trapped passengers from the derailed coaches of the train. Police officials said that all the 14 derailed coaches have been removed from the railway tracks.

“133 bodies have been found so far, out of which 110 have been identified,” IG (Kanpur range) Zaki Ahmad said adding that 97 bodies have been handed over to relatives.

Most of the bodies were taken to Mati mortuary in Kanpur rural. The victims were mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

Nearly 200 were injured in the worst train accident in recent years which took place just a little after 3am on Sunday. While the S3 and S4 sleeper coaches were thrown off on to the nearby fields, S1 and S2 in front of them bore the brunt, as the coaches smashed into each other leaving behind mangled iron.

While the cause of the derailment is not known, railway officials suspect a rail fracture. In addition to the other departmental inquiries by the Railways, P.K. Acharya, Commissioner, Railway Safety, Eastern Circle, Kolkata will hold the statutory inquiry on Monday and Tuesday, a north central railway spokesperson informed.

Calling it a “major accident,” S.K. Agarwal, DRM, Jhansi division, said the cause could not be ascertained right away, even as he hinted there was no tampering with the track.

“The Sabarmati Express crossed the same track nine minutes earlier. It would have reported any fault. The driver felt no jerks. It is difficult to point out a reason at this moment,” Mr. Agarwal told.