The two trains were travelling on a single-track line between the coastal towns of Bari and Barletta when they crashed into each other around 11.30 am local time.
Emergency services are at the scene near the town of Andria and are trying to free passengers from the wrecked carriages.
An image of the crash showed the carriages had been badly damaged and forced off the rails at sharp angles, with debris strewn across either side of the tracks.
Firefighters
work at the site where two passenger trains collided in the middle of
an olive grove in the southern village of Corato, near Bari, Italy, in
this handout picture released by Italian Firefighters, 12 July, 2016
(Reuters)
A
damaged passenger train is seen after a collision with another in the
middle of an olive grove in the southern village of Corato, near Bari,
Italy, in this handout picture released by Italian Firefighters, 12
July, 2016 (Reuters)
"The rescue is complicated because this happened in the middle of the countryside," he added.
A small child was rescued from the wreckage and taken to hospital in a helicopter.
"Some of the cars are completely crumpled and the rescuers are extracting people from the metal, many of them injured," Riccardo Zingaro, the chief of the local police in Andria, told ANSA at the scene.
National police and carabinieri could not immediately provide details about the extent of the crash.
He said: "It is a disaster, as if a plane crashed.
"The emergency workers and civil protection staff are there, unfortunately there are victims."
Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi said the crash "is a moment of tears", and pledged not to stop until a cause is determined.
He said Granziano Del Rio, Italy's minister for infrastructure and transport, is heading to the crash site with the head of civil protection.
Mr Renzi interrupted a trip to Milan to return to Rome following the accident.
Around 200 people use the line, managed by Ferrotramviaria, each day on around 200 trains.
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