Health workers slaughtered thousands of chickens in dozens of western Indian villages today to contain the country’s second bird flu outbreak, a senior official said.

Burma and India have announced culls of thousands of poultry to curb the spread of bird flu, while Sweden has confirmed its first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in two wild birds.

Fifteen people have been killed by a train while crossing a railway track in India's western Maharashtra state.