President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has offered condolences following the fatal train crash in India’s Odisha State.

In a Twitter post on Sunday morning, President Solih expressed grief in learning of the tragic train crash in Odisha State of neighboring India.

He offered deepest sympathies from the people and government of Maldives, to those affected by the tragedy.

President Solih offered thoughts and prayers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the government and people of India during this difficult time.

Reuters cited Indian authorities having confirmed that the death toll has neared 300, in what has been dubbed India’s worst rail crash in more than two decades.

It has been revealed that the passenger train went off the tracks and hit another one in an accident reported at 7pm on Friday. A preliminary report has blamed the accident on signal failure.

Reuters reported that one train also hit a freight train parked nearby in the district of Balasore in Odisha state in the east of the country in Friday’s accident. This left a tangled mess of smashed rail cars, injuring more than 800.

Indian authorities have revealed that dead bodies are still trapped in the coaches as frantic rescue operations continue.

Reuters revealed that the death toll is expected to rise and that video footage shows wrecked train coaches and damaged tracks, as rescue teams searched the carriages to pull out survivors and rush them to the hospital.