At least eight persons died and around 20 were injured after two trains collided in Vizianagaram district on the Howrah-Chennai line on Sunday evening, a police official said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday slammed senior BJP leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar for his social media posts criticising him over a blast at a convention centre in Kalamassery, saying it was part of his communal stand.

Months after the tragic Balasore triple train collision, which claimed the lives of 280 people, another devastating incident has occurred on Sunday evening, in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram, at least three individuals lost their lives when an express train collided with a stationary passenger train.

The death toll in the blasts at a religious gathering in Kalamassery near here increased to two with a woman, who suffered 90 per cent burns in the incident, succumbing to her injuries, Kerala Health Minister Veena George said on Sunday.

A 34-year-old Indian mother of two children, who travelled to a remote village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to marry her Facebook friend, will return to India after getting clearance from the Pakistan government, her husband said.

Amidst the chaos that followed the explosion at their prayer convention in Kalamassery, eyewitnesses recounted the terrifying moments that left the venue in a state of shock and grief in this Kerala town.

An inspector of Jammu and Kashmir Police was shot and critically wounded by a terrorist in downtown Srinagar on Sunday, officials said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday called for an all-party meeting here on Monday in the wake of a blast at a convention centre at Kalamassery in Kochi.