BRAHMANBARI, Bangladesh -- Two passenger trains collided head-on at a station in eastern Bangladesh early Sunday killing at least seven people and injuring 30 others, officials said.

Witnesses and fire officials said eight bodies were recovered from the wreckage, but a railway spokesman in the capital Dhaka said seven passengers died.

"We have recovered seven bodies and also shifted 30 wounded passengers to two nearby town hospitals," spokesman Mostafa-e-Jamil told AFP.

Hospital officials told AFP some of the injured were in a serious condition and the death toll could rise.

The accident took place at around 0430 A.M. (2230 GMT) at Azampur station on the outskirts of Brahmanbaria town, near the border with India's Tripura state.

Witnesses said a stationary express train was hit by another on the same track at the station.

The trains were plying between the southeastern port city of Chittagong and the northeastern town of Sylhet, the railway official said.

Some station staff fled as army troops, deployed in an anti-crime drive, and police cordoned off the station, witnesses said. The spokesman said the driver of the moving train and two other people had been suspended from duty for "negligence and disregarding signals."

He said an official investigation had been ordered and added the tracks were being cleared so trains could hopefully resume running in the afternoon.

One of the engines was on top of the other in a mangled state, while nine carriages of the two trains had jumped off the tracks, witnesses at the station said.

Rescue workers pulled out bodies as they cut through the wreckage.

"Passengers were screaming and crying loudly after a loud bang," said Yakub Ali, 35, who was on the stationary train when the accident happened.

"Then something heavy fell on my head and I became unconscious," he added.

Another of the wounded, Abu Taher, lay groaning in pain at a hospital in the town.

"There was a loud bang and the next thing I knew I was in this hospital. There is a lack of doctors and I am waiting for help," he said.

Witnessses said as the trains collided screaming passengers tried to escape through the windows and doors. Amena Begum, 35, who survived the crash unscathed, said: "I was dozing in my seat and suddenly everything turned into hell."

"I prayed to Allah before moving as I was unsure what to do ... somebody then pulled me out from the train. Thank god I am alive."

Earlier this month, 50 people were injured when a crowded express train went off the rails near Dhaka.