A moving freight train rammed into a stationary train on the loop line near Onda station in Bankura district on Sunday early morning, leading to the derailment of a dozen wagons and disruption in the traffic between the Kharagpur and Adra railway divisions for around four hours.

The driver of the freight train that was bound for Kharagpur was injured and hospitalised.

Sources said the Kharagpur-bound train had been running at a speed of nearly 60kmph on the loop line when it had smashed into a goods train parked on the same tracks around 4am.

Sources in the South Eastern Railway (SER) said the signal was red but the driver of the moving train might have dozed off and unnoticed it.

The engine of the running train climbed on the top of the other. A dozen wagons of the two trains were derailed and fell on the up and down lines. The wagons of both the goods trains were empty.

Railway officials at the spot where a freight train crashed into another near Onda station on Sunday. The Telegraph

Electric poles and a nearby transformer were damaged because of the collision.

Asked whether the accident had been caused by a fault in the signalling system, railway officials said they had ordered a probe to ascertain the reason.

Senior railway officials, including the Adra divisional manager, Manish Kumar, visited the spot.

The accident stalled train services between the Kharagpur and Adra divisions of the SER for four hours.

SER officials said altogether 14 trains had been cancelled, three diverted and two short-terminated.

The railway officials said train services were restored between the two divisions around 8.30am.

"Up line was made ready for train movement at 7.45am. Some trains have been cancelled. The cause of the collision is yet to be ascertained,” said an SER official.

Over 290 people had been killed in a triple-train accident at Bahanagar Bazar station in Odisha's Balasore district on June 2. Among the deceased were nearly 90 people from Bengal. The Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train, derailing most of its coaches. A few coaches of Coromandel toppled over the last few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express which was passing by at the same time.