At least 28 people were killed when an express train derailed in southern Pakistan.

Local hospitals have declared an emergency, the railway minister said, as they struggle to cope with dozens of injured.

The derailment happened near Sahara railway station close to Nawabshah city in the southern Sindh province.

At least 1,000 passengers were aboard the Hazara Express when it derailed on a section of track where no faults had been reported.

Volunteers continued to wade through a canal which separates the road from the railway line and helped to lift the injured to safety. 

Some passenger compartments were upright but off the tracks, while others lay on their side, mangled steel from the undercarriage twisted and buckled.

The Hazara Express is a daily passenger train which leaves Karachi in the south and takes around 33 hours to reach Havelian in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, some 1,600 kilometres north.

In June 2021 two trains collided near Daharki in Sindh, killing at least 65 people and injuring about 150 others.

At least 75 passengers were burnt to death in a fire aboard the Tezgam express train in October 2019, while a two-train collision at Ghotki killed more than 100 people in 2005.