At least 20 people were killed and more than 80 injured in India’s northern state of Uttra Pardesh on Saturday after a train came off the tracks, officials said.

The rescuers and local people worked through the night searching for survivors in the overturned and mangled carriages, some piled on top of each other, according to officials.

The death toll was expected to rise, officials said.

At least eight carriages derailed in the crash close to Muzaffarnagar, about 130 km north of the capital New Delhi, as the train traveled toward the Hindu holy city of Haridwar, police said.

Train crashes are frequent in India, which has the world's fourth biggest rail network. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a message on Twitter saying he was pained by the derailment of the Utkal Express, offering condolences to families of those killed and wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

Saturday's accident is at least the fourth major passenger train derailment this year and the third in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. A crash in November in Uttar Pradesh killed 150 people.