The death toll from a train collision in Sadiqabad rose to 23 on Friday after several people succumbed to their injuries overnight, officials said.

The incident took place on Thursday in Sadiqabad — a subdistrict of Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab— when a passenger train coming from Lahore rammed into a goods train that had stopped at a crossing.

The accident saw mangled carriages flipped on their sides and left debris strewn by the sides of the tracks as rescuers used cranes to enable them to pick through some of the twisted wreckage.

“According to the latest updates available with us, the death toll rose to 23 overnight after more people died of their wounds in different hospitals,” a senior Pakistan Railways official told AFP.

He said a total of 73 people were still being treated for injuries.

Another senior railways official confirmed the toll and said, “rescuers have pulled out all the dead and injured from the wreckage”.

“We are now focusing on quickly clearing the track,” he said, adding that an investigation was already ordered.

Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the railways minister to take emergency steps to counter decades of neglect in railway infrastructure and ensure that safety standards are upheld.