Panic gripped passengers when sparks flew from the wheels of Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express after brakes were applied ahead of a railway station in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district, prompting some of them to pull an emergency chain.

Some passengers jumped on the tracks from one side while others stepped down from another side, close to a culvert wall, eye-witnesses said.

The passengers who jumped on the tracks were run over by a fast train, they said.

"The incident occurred after the train passed the Jalgaon station and was nearing Pachora in the afternoon," a passenger told a Marathi news channel.

He said panic gripped passengers after some of them saw sparks flying from the wheels of the train when brakes were applied.

"Some passengers pulled the emergency chain and got down on the tracks, leading to the tragedy," he said.

He saw at least two passengers coming under the wheels of the Karnataka Express.

"Some passengers said 8 to 9 fatalities have occurred," he said, adding that Pushpak Express resumed its onward journey after more than an hour.

The visuals of the spot show mutilated body parts lying along a stretch of the railway track. Many passengers descended a slope after the train came to a halt.

At least 12 passengers were killed when they jumped from their train in panic due to a "fire incident", only to be run over by another train on the adjacent tracks in North Maharashtra's Jalgaon district, officials said Residents of nearby villages rushed to the spot to offer help.

Salman Pathan, a resident of Pachora, said he saw mutilated bodies on the tracks.

"We saw the headless body of a man. A woman was inconsolable after her husband lost his life in the accident, his body badly mangled," he said.

A senior Railway official told PTI that the preliminary information suggests sparks and smoke inside one of the general coaches of Pushpak Express due to either `hot axle' or `brake-binding' (jamming).

"Some panicked passengers pulled the chain, and some of them jumped down. At the same time, Karnataka Express was passing," he said.

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