Lalu confirms death of 15 passengers

"I have been told by railway officials that 15 to 20 people have died," the Railway minister told reporters.

Two trains collided head-on in Punjab on Tuesday, killing 15 to 20 people, Railway Minister Lalu Yadav said.

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"I have been told by railway officials that 15 to 20 people have died," Yadav told reporters.

"The cause of the accident is not known," he added before leaving for the crash site 150 kilometers east of Amritsar in Punjab.

Mulkha Raj Sharma, station superintendent in the city of Jammu said that the trains had collided head-on.

One of the trains involved in the collision was an express train, which left Jammu Tuesday morning bound for the central city of Bhopal, Sharma said.

The other train was a local one, Lalu said.