At least 150 passengers were killed and more than 200 injured, nearly half of them grievously, in the worst train accident in recent years when 14 coaches of Indore-Patna Express derailed at Pukhrayan in Kanpur rural area in the wee hours on Sunday due to suspected rail fracture.

The disaster took place just a little after 3 am when the passengers were jolted out of their sleep as the Patna-bound train 19321 jumped the tracks, badly damaging four ordinary sleeper coaches in which hundreds were trapped.

However, some passengers injured in the derailment mysteriously received cash, mostly in the denomination of scrapped Rs 500 notes, while they were admitted in a hospital.