Seven Asian elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in the northeastern Indian state of Assam during the early hours of Saturday morning, local authorities said.

The train driver spotted a herd of around one hundred elephants and applied the emergency brakes, but despite the effort, the train struck some of the animals, according to a spokesperson for Indian Railways.

As a result of the collision, five passenger coaches and the locomotive derailed.

No passengers were injured in the incident, the spokesperson said.

Veterinarians conducted post-mortem examinations on the elephants that were killed, some of which were buried near the site of the accident.

The crash site is located in a forested area approximately one hundred twenty-five kilometers southeast of Guwahati, the capital of Assam.

Railway tracks in the state are often used by elephants as crossing points, but Indian Railways said in a statement that the accident site is not designated as an official elephant corridor.

The train was carrying six hundred fifty passengers and was traveling from Serchhip in the state of Mizoram, which borders Myanmar, to India’s capital, New Delhi.

“We detached the coaches that did not derail, and the train continued its journey to New Delhi.

About two hundred passengers who were in the five derailed coaches were transferred to Guwahati on another train,” the railway spokesperson said.

Collisions between fast-moving trains and wild elephants are not uncommon in Assam, which is home to an estimated seven thousand Asian elephants, one of the largest concentrations of the species in India.

Since two thousand twenty, at least a dozen elephants have been killed by high-speed trains across the state.

At this time of year, wild elephants often move into inhabited areas as rice fields reach harvest season.