NEW DELHI, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least five people have died and two others injured after being hit by a train in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, railway police said Monday.

The accident occurred at Pilkhuwa in the state's Hapur district late Sunday night.

"We have information of five deaths. The victims were on railway tracks when a goods train was coming from one side. In order to avoid the train, they moved to the other track where they were run over by another train," S.C. Dubey, local railway police chief, told the media.

All the injured have been admitted to a local hospital, he said, adding that their condition is said to be serious.

A probe has been ordered into the incident, the official said.

The state-owned Indian Railways is one of the world's largest train networks, criss-crossing the country from north to south. It operates some 9,000 passenger trains and carries nearly 23 million passengers every day.

However, train disasters are common in India. A number of people are killed in train accidents, mostly derailments, across the country every year.