DHAKA — At least 40 people were injured when seven compartments of two trains were collided head-on an overpass in Bangladesh's Cumilla district, some 96 km east of the capital Dhaka, police said.

Md Faruk Hossain, officer-in-charge of Cumilla's Nangalkot police station, told Xinhua that five compartments of the Dhaka-bound passenger train Sonar Bangla Express from the southeastern seaport city Chattogram derailed after it hit a goods train from behind at the Hasanpur Railway Station in Nangalkot at around 6:30 pm local time (1230 GMT) on Sunday.

He added that two compartments of the goods train went off tracks following the accident.

According to the official, the train derailments halted the railway communication from Dhaka to other parts of the country for hours.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

Early reports suggest that a signal failure may have been the cause of the crash. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Hasanpur station master's whereabouts have not been known since the incident. Nangalkot Railway Station Master Jamal Hossain confirmed the collision and stated that a rescue train has been dispatched from Laksam in response to the report. — Agencies