Up to 50 people were killed when a train derailed in Congo's southeastern province of Tanganyika in the early hours of Thursday, government officials said, although their reports on the number of casualties differed widely.

The Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Steve Mbikayi, said the derailment happened around 3 a.m. local time, near the town of Mayibaridi, and the death toll of 50 was provisional.

"Speaking for the government, I present my condolences to the families affected," he said on Twitter.

The governor of Tanganyika, Zoe Kabila, later gave a lower provisional toll of 10 people killed and 30 injured. He said three of the train's carriages had come off the tracks.

Deadly transport accidents are common in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to poor infrastructure and lack of regulation.

Railways in DR Congo have a poor record for safety, hampered by poor tracks and decrepit locomotives, many of them dating from the 1960s, report Al Jazeera.
In March, at least 24 people were killed and 31 were injured Sunday when a freight train carrying illegal passengers crashed in the central region of Kasai.
In November last year, 10 stowaways were killed and 24 injured near the eastern town of Samba when the brakes failed on a freight train.
In November 2017, 35 people were killed when a freight train carrying 13 oil tankers plunged into a ravine in southern Lualaba province.