NEW DELHI (AP) — A former state government official says most of the casualties of a train disaster that killed dozens in northern India were migrant workers.

R.C. Yadev, former chairman of Punjab state's Workers Welfare Board, said Saturday that many of the 60 killed and dozens injured when a speeding train ran over a crowd celebrating the Hindu festival of Dussehra on Friday night had left their families in neighboring states to work in factories and shops in Punjab.

A local Congress party politician had organized the event at a clearing near the railway tracks on the outskirts of Amritsar. Hundreds were watching the burning of an effigy of the demon Ravana as fireworks went off when two trains crossed the tracks in opposite directions, giving people little opportunity to escape.