KOLKATA, Aug 18: A drill to test the preparedeness of emergency staff of Indian railways sparked panic and forced officials to issue a public apology on Wednesday after they reported a head-on collision between two trains near Kolkata.

"It created confusion among (railways) officials," Southeastern Railways official spokesman Robi Mahapatro said after enquiry centres, acting on an official message sent to their computer network, announced an accident had occurred near the town of Kharagpur.

Mahapatro said a corrective message explaining that the "accident" was merely an exercise was now being relayed to officials dealing with panic-stricken people.

"Many people were misinformed because of the (computer) glitch. A lot of passengers at the Howrah station became panicky and newspaper offices also rang us relentlessly to confirm this so-called news," Mahapatro said.

"My telephone rang ceaselessly for an hour," the harried spokesman said in Calcutta. The utility, which in June suffered a major train accident that killed 20 people, extended a public apology.

"We are sorry for the confusion created by this mock drill that continued for two hours. We should have been more careful before starting the drill. We are correcting it by issuing a press release," the railways chief spokesman Debasish Chandra said.

Other officials at Calcutta's main Howrah station were visibly angry over the botched drill. "Enquiry (counters) misled everyone," shouted Abanti Sen, a commercial inspector with the Southeastern railways following the alert that the crash occurred at 4.10pm.

"And even now, more than three hours after the first alert, our computers are reporting the drill as a genuine accident," said A.K. Manna, one of the frustrated information officials at the station's enquiry centre.

Earlier, Debasish Adak, a senior administrator in the personnel department of Southeastern Railways headquarters in Kolkata, had said that 38 people had been killed in an accident. Indian railways has seen a spate of crashes in recent months. -AFP