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NEW DELHI, Monday (AFP) A senior Indian railway official on Sunday blamed Maoist rebels for derailing a train in the south of the country, leaving 20 people dead and 90 injured.

Nine carriages of an express train rolled over and two came off the track completely in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh state early on Saturday.

The train, bound for Bangalore, was moving at around 80-100 kilometres (50-60 miles) per hour.

South Central Railway general manager S.M. Singla said an inspection of the tracks showed they had been cut and four or five hacksaws had been recovered nearby.

"A rail has been cut. Who has cut it? Why has he cut it? It is for the police to find out," Singla told the Press Trust of India news agency in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

But he added: "It is all a planned act of a Naxalite group."

The Naxalites are Marxist rebels active in Andhra Pradesh who have been fighting for three decades to improve social and property rights for the state's indigenous tribal population and landless farmers, in a conflict that has cost more than 10,000 lives.

Meanwhile President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Sunday offered his condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

"Their grief is shared by the people throughout the country," a statement said. 

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