Rescue workers in Tanzania have given up hope of finding any more survivors in the passenger train which crashed near the administrative capital, Dodoma, on Monday.

As relatives waited to view the remains of the dead, it was confirmed that at least 200 people had died in the collision and over 900 had been seriously injured.

The bodies have been laid out at a sports hall

President Benjamin Mkapa has promised a full investigation into the tragedy, and on Tuesday the country began two days of national mourning.

Visiting the scene, the president said the disaster could not have been averted - but some passengers have accused the driver of negligence.

"We have not had anything like it before," said Mr Mkapa as he stepped over the scattered belongings of passengers.

"All the indications are that it's an accident, an accident we were powerless to prevent."

Runaway train

The train lost power is believed to have lost power and rolled backwards down a slope, colliding with a goods train before derailing.

Immediately and from nowhere, we saw the train slowly descending backwards

Moses Rugeiyamu, survivor

Passengers have been describing how the runaway train gathered speed for 15 minutes before the crash.

Moses Rugeiyamu told journalists that the train had stopped without explanation at the small station of Ilhumwa, 25 kilometres outside Dodoma, where it stood for 20 minutes.

"Immediately and from nowhere, we saw the train slowly descending backwards," he told reporters from his hospital bed in Dodoma.

Whereas the train had moved slowly at first it "became as fast as a plane", hitting 200 km per hour, Mr Rugeiyamu said.

"I did not know what happened after that, but I only found myself in hospital with an injured hand," he added.

Another survivor, named only as Rugeimukamu, said the train was moving so fast that no-one would have dared trying to leap to freedom.

Others spoke of how people had prayed as the train swayed from side to side from the speed, spilling luggage out of the overhead bins which hit passengers trying to make for the doors.

Ali Kibaba, who also survived, blamed the driver for the extent of the tragedy, saying he could have alerted passengers to any problem with the train instead of keeping them aboard, uninformed, for 20 minutes at Ilhumwa.

The driver was still reported as missing on Tuesday.