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Rescuers in India are scrambling to find survivors after a horrific crash involving three trains killed hundreds of people in one of the worst rail disasters the country has ever seen, CNN reports.

At least 288 people have been confirmed dead and more than 1,000 injured following the collision between two passenger trains and a goods train in the city of Balasore, in eastern Odisha state, on Friday.

But rescuers expect the death toll to rise further, as many people are thought to be trapped under upturned carriages.

“We are not very hopeful of rescuing anyone alive,” Odisha’s Fire Services Chief, Sudhanshu Sarangi, told local news channel NDTV.

The cause of the crash remains unclear but Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters Saturday that a “high-level inquiry” has been ordered into the collision, which took place in northeastern Odisha, near the Bahanaga railway station.

The incident has reverberated across India, a nation of 1.4 billion, prompting renewed calls for authorities to address safety issues that have plagued the country’s railways for decades.

India’s trains serve 13 million passengers every day, and while the government has recently invested millions to upgrade its railways, years of neglect have caused tracks to deteriorate.