Passengers aboard the doomed train that crashed in Tanzania had to endure a 20 minute roller coaster ride to death.

They were hurled from their seats and tossed around the carriages like straws in the wind as the runaway train picked up speed, jolting and swaying in a headlong rush back down a hill.

As the train began to roll backwards along the track, some passengers who had disembarked while the crew tried to fix a fault in the engine, rushed back - unaware they were clambering on board only to meet their deaths.

The end came when their carriages hurtled into an oncoming goods train carrying fuel and were derailed.

And even for those who survived Tanzania's worst train disaster, the price of life was even more horror. Rescuers had to amputate limbs to free passengers trapped in the mangled wreckage.

Numbed by their terrible injuries, some were spared unspeakable pain as rescuers lacking anaesthetics sawed at their limbs. "There was this woman -- we cut off one of her legs and she was in so much shock she couldn't feel anything," one rescuer said.

"She told us she just felt tired. She didn't even realise her leg was being cut off."

In just 20 minutes, the careering train had covered nearly 50 kilometres before crashing between Igandu and Msagali, southeast of Dodoma, Tanzania's political capital and about 400 kilometres west of the commercial centre Dar es Salaam.

Early estimates of a death toll of more than 200 proved modest. Tanzania's worst rail disaster has claimed more than 300 lives, it was feared last night.

Poignantly most of the dead were women and children, unable to save themselves by jumping from the runaway train. Many men made the leap that saved their lives.

Initial rescue efforts were hampered by the remoteness of the crash site, tucked amid hills of scrub and rocks inaccessible by tarmac road. The train had 22 wagons --11 for third class, six for second and three first class. Most of the deaths were in the third class carriages, attached to the rear of the train.

Rescuers and recovery crews working for a third day yesterday pulled more broken bodies from the wreckage. Creaking rhythmically, a crane lifted carriages off each other, moving slowly in case survivors were inside. But rescuers found only the dead, piled on top of one another in concertinaed carriages or thrown clear of the wreckage.

Thousands of people waiting for news of missing relatives and friends sobbed with grief as 40 more bodies were taken to the Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma, where they were laid out for identification.

They joined those of about 150 people laid out beneath a makeshift khaki canvas awning.

"We are devastated," said Ms Esther Nyanulago, 22, who had identified the body of her sister. Like many of the other passengers, the dead woman had been travelling from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza on Lake Victoria.

"She had just finished her A-levels and was looking for a job. She was on her way to visit relatives," her sister said.

Many of the victims were traders, who use the line to ferry food and other supplies to markets which students and workers regularly use it to access their schools and rural homes.

Mr Dismas Lubeleze, a turnboy for a company transporting cattle and goats to markets between Dodoma and Dar es Salaam, was among the first rescuers at the scene.

"We managed to pull out some people who had been injured and take them to the hospital at Mpwapwa District headquarters," he said, describing the site as "horrible".

Mpwapwa District Commissioner Fulgence L. Saria said an urgent district executive committee meeting was convened quickly to mobilise private and public sector resources and people for the rescue.

"First priority was to free the injured and ensure they were taken quickly to the hospital before we embarked on removing the dead," he said.

From their hospital beds, survivors told of their ordeals.

One man who had reboarded the train was Mr Joseph Nyangwe, a poultry farmer travelling to his rural home in Tarime. He climbed aboard as the train began to move backwards, believing it had been repaired.

Though the horn was not blown, he thought the driver was reversing to gain momentum to climb the hill. He stayed aboard and weas one of the lucky ones; recovering from his injuries yesterday with his son at Mpwapwa district hospital.

Another survivor who had reboarded the train was Mr Amos Yohana, travelling to Morogoro for an SDA seminar.

He said: "We had alighted from the train when I noticed it moving and thought we were being left behind.

"Even those who had gone to the bush rushed back to rejoin those already on the train but we soon realised that something was terribly wrong when it continued to roll back".

He continued: "There was smoke all over and people started praying.

"Soon the coaches started to go in a zigzag manner and that is when there was a loud bang and everything became hazy.

"I just found myself outside the train soon afterwards."