“This is very, very tragic. I have never seen anything like this in my career," said Sudhanshu Sarangi, the director of Odisha state’s fire and emergency department.

Nearly 500 police officers and rescue workers with 75 ambulances and buses responded to the incident.

Approximately 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate pellets are believed to have fallen onto the tracks in small quantities throughout the two-week trip.

Chemicals from the derailed cars and firefighting foam seeped into creeks and rivers near the village, with some eventually ending up in the Ohio River.

Multiple cars on a BNSF freight train came off the tracks early Thursday morning, prompting evacuations within half a mile of the crash site in Raymond.

Footage was overwritten when the train went "immediately back in service following the accident," according to a federal agency investigating the incident.