Karachi: A train crashed into a van at a crossing in southern Pakistan, killing eight people and injuring four from the same family, an official said on Monday.

In the latest accident to hit the country’s run-down railways the northbound Fareed Express hit the van near Allah Dino Sand, a village 170 kilometres (105 miles) north of Karachi.

A Sindh provincial health official, Dr Hasan Murad Shah, said the dead and the injured in the accident Sunday night were from the same extended family of farmhands.

Railway accidents in Pakistan generally take place at the unmanned crossings. They lack barriers and sometimes signals, leaving commuters to judge for themselves whether it is safe to proceed.

At other times vehicles find themselves stuck on the tracks.

Train accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of miles of track and trains from former colonial power Britain.

But the railways have seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.