He added that five train carriages were derailed after running over the elephants, but no human injuries occurred, and veterinarians performed autopsies on the dead elephants, which are scheduled to be buried later today.
Indian local authorities stated that seven wild Asian elephants died and a young elephant was injured when a high-speed passenger train ran over a herd of elephants in Assam, northeastern India, early Saturday morning.
The spokesman for the Indian Railways, Kapingal Kishore Sharma, said the train driver spotted a herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still ran over some of the animals.
The accident site is located in a forest area, approximately 125 kilometers southeast of Guwahati, the capital of Assam. Elephants frequently travel along the railway lines in the state, although the Indian Railway Authority stated in a statement that the accident site is not a designated elephant crossing.
The Rajdhani Express train, traveling from Sairang in the adjacent state of Mizoram to Myanmar, to the national capital New Delhi, with 650 passengers onboard, ran over the elephants.
