At least 17 people were killed and dozens others wounded as two carriages of a passenger train overturned after a freight train crashed into it in northeastern Bangladesh, police said Monday.

The accident occurred when the freight train hit the Dhaka-bound Egaro Shindur Express passenger train from the rear, derailing and overturning two of its coaches near Bahirab station in Kishoreganj district in the afternoon, according to Anwar Hossain, superintendent of railway police.

Seventeen bodies were found at the accident site, some 80 kilometers (nearly 50 miles) north-east of the capital Dhaka, local police chief Rasel Sheikh said, quoting rescuers from the Fire Service and Civil Defence emergency department.

He said more than 50 wounded people were sent to different hospitals and added that the rescuers told him that there were apparently no other people trapped inside the coaches.

Local government official Sadiqur Rahman said residents, members of the fire service and law enforcement agencies together began the rescue operation soon after the accident occurred.

Television footage showed hundreds of people gathered at the scene where rescuers were cutting part of a carriage to recover injured people trapped inside. One of the carriages was shattered and overturned.

Train communications between Dhaka and the eastern part of the country have remained suspended since the accident, Nazmul Islam, a senior officer at the railway department said.

A rescue train has departed from Dhaka, he said, adding an investigation will be launched to determine the cause behind the accident.