Officials are investigating a fire on a train in India which claimed the lives of 32 passengers. A carriage on the Tamil Nadu Express caught fire in the early hours of Monday morning in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The train was on its way from Delhi to Chennai.

It is thought that the fire may have been caused by some sort of electrical short circuit. The ministry of railways said that the blaze began as the train was passing through Nellore station, which is 310 miles to the south of the state capital of Hyderabad.

The town’s district administration chief B Sridhar said it would have been likely that most of the passengers would have been asleep when the fire started. According to reports, a number were able to get off the train while it was still in motion. However, 25 of those travelling in the coach needed hospital treatment for their injuries.

It was initially reported that 47 passengers had perished in the fire, but the figure was reduced later by officials. This latest incident follows a train crash in the same state in May that claimed the lives of 24 people.

According to official figures, some 1,220 people have been killed on India’s state-run railways in just five years. Every day, 18 million passengers are carried to all corners of the country on 9,000 passenger trains.