The train, which derailed at about 2 a.m., was loaded with an estimated 900 passengers, many of who were heading home for the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Adha.

Dozens of soldiers and police helped tend the injured and carry them away to waiting ambulances, as hundreds of people from the surrounding villages looked on. Army engineers used two cranes and cutting equipment to free the last survivors.

Passenger, Mohammed Yusuf sat on a pink blanket next to a pile of discarded shoes and clothes, wailing in grief at the death of his younger brother.

He said his wife, two children and another brother were injured and taken to a hospital but their conditions were unknown. Yusuf, 26, said his brother survived the impact and was crying out in pain, but that he had been unable to free his trapped leg. “It’s unbearable. Don’t say that he is dead,” Yusuf pleaded, as other relatives tried to console him.

Reason unknown

The train was speeding from Karachi toward Lahore, when about 12 of its 16 carriages came off the rails near Mehrabpur, about 250 miles north of Karachi. It was unclear what caused the accident.

Shahid Khan, a 25-year-old, who had been travelling to Lahore with six of his relatives, said he used the light from his mobile phone to find his way out.