Two people were killed and two others injured in an accident on Friday night, when a train collided with a car at an unmanned level crossing in Tamil Nadu.

The incident took place between the Chinna Salem and the Pukkiravari railway stations at around 12:15 in the night, according to a DTnext report.

The Salem - Viruddhachalam passenger train collided with a Maruti Swift car at Level Crossing LC gate 101.

The accident occurred just 40 kilometres from Viruddhachalam, a temple town in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.

Following this, the station masters of both the Chinna Salem and Pukkiravari stations alerted the 108 ambulance immediately.

Medical staff on arrival declared both two women Chitra (48) and Kavya (21) dead, while two men Vetrivel (56) and Maheswaran (19) were rushed to the government medical college at Mundiyapakkam and government medical college at Kallakurichi respectively.

All the passengers in the car belonged to the same family, according to reports.

The rear portion of the car was completely smashed, resulting in the death of the women.

While the level crossing was unmanned, a 'gate mitra' near the crossing alerting about the oncoming passenger train was not heeded to, by the car driver, according to reports.

The incident comes at a a time when the Indian Railways have been trying to do away with all unmanned level crossings. The Southern Railways is set to spend Rs 286.35 crore to remove 149 unmanned level crossings in Tamil Nadu this year.

Based on rail and road traffic density, the Railways has decided to convert 29 unmanned level crossings into manned ones at a cost of Rs 7.25 crore. An amount of Rs 279.1 crore will be reportedly invested to remove at least 140 unmanned level crossings by building subways.