At least 30 people were confirmed dead while more than 25 others sustained burns in a major fire that engulfed one of the coaches of an express train in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh early Monday, a police official said.

"So far 25 charred bodies have been recovered from the coach of the Chennai Express which caught fire at 5:30 a.m. local time near Nellore station in the state enroute to the southern city of Chennai in neighboring state of Tamil Nadu from the Indian capital. Five others have succumbed to their injuries in the hospital," he said on condition of anonymity.

The death toll is likely to go up as some of the injured are battling for their lives in the hospital, the official said.

Local TV channels showed footage of the charred compartment and rescuers cutting the window panes in order to get out those trapped inside the coach even as fire engines were pressed into service to douse the fire.

Senior railway and state administration officials have rushed to the spot and a probe has been ordered into the incident. " Preliminary inquiry suggests that an electrical short circuit is the most likely cause of the inferno," the official said.

Indian has one of the largest rail networks in the world, but it has an awful safety record as a large number of people have been killed every year.