The crash, between a passenger train and a freight train, happened in the city of Bhairab - about 50 miles (80km) northeast of the capital Dhaka.

Local fire official Mosharraf Hossain said the bodies of at least 15 people had been recovered and he fears the number of casualties could rise.

"Our people are working there. It's a chaotic situation. We don't have much information for now," he told the AP news agency.

He said the crash involved the Dhaka-bound Godhuli Express and a freight train heading to Chattogram.

Railway accidents are common in Bangladesh - blamed mainly on unsupervised crossings, poor signalling and bad track conditions.

A similar incident took place in 2019, where 16 people died in a crash in the nearby city of Brahmanbaria.

That crash involved a freight train and a passenger train - one of which was heading to the southern port city of Chittagong and the other to Dhaka.