NEW DELHI (Reuters) : A passenger train smashed into a tractor carrying people back from a wedding in Maharashtra, killing 56 people, most of them women and children, a railway spokesman said on Feb. 4.

The crash occurred late on Feb. 3 at an unmanned railway crossing about 14 miles from the city of Nagpur, railway authorities said.

The dead included 32 women and 20 children, said Jagdish Kumar, a spokesman for South East Central Railways. He said the tractor was carrying at least 70 villagers at the time of the accident.

“The accident happened when the tractor driver...drove past the track at an unmanned level crossing just as a train was coming. The trailer came right into the train’s path,” Kumar said.

“The people in the trailer, who were returning from a wedding, were crushed as the engine rammed into it. The tractor driver is absconding,” he said.

He said 11 of the 14 injured were in critical condition at a hospital in the area. No one was injured on the train, which was traveling from Ramtek to Nagpur, more than 510 miles east of Mumbai.