The victims were traveling on their way to participate in the victory procession of a candidate who was elected as the head of a local village. The train was coming from the Indian capital New Delhi to a city in northern Bihar’s Madhubani district. Of the 17 victims, 16 were women.

“Right now, I can see 17 bodies lying on the railway track,” senior police official Saurabh Kumar told Reuters by phone from Madhubani, some 160 km north of Patna, the state capital. Five more jeep passengers who were badly injured in the accident were admitted to a local hospital.