Kramatorsk: At least 1,000 at railway station when rockets hit - witness

More than 1,000 people were crowded into a railway station in eastern Ukraine when it was hit by rockets on Friday, an eyewitness has told the BBC.

At least 39 people died and dozens more were wounded when missiles exploded at Kramatorsk station as civilians were queuing to evacuate, according to the regional governor.

Images from the scene show bodies and abandoned bags lying on the platform.

Ukraine said Russia targeted civilians. Russia has denied the attack.

Nathan Mook, an aid worker who saw people crowding at the station, counted between five and 10 explosions: "Two minutes after we had driven by, you feel it before you hear it: the boom, the explosion."

Mr Mook said he saw well over 1,000 people at the station just before the attack happened, and the regional prosecutor's office said nearly 4,000 people were there at the time, mainly women and children. Four of the dead were children, according to Ukraine's SBU security service.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were no soldiers at the station. "This is an evil that has no limits," the president said, accusing Russia of cynically targeting civilians when it could not win on the battlefield.

For days, crowded trains have been leaving the east, after regional leaders appealed to residents to flee Russia's invading forces. Busloads of evacuees have been arriving at the few remaining stations still open, from towns and cities that have come under Russian bombardment.

Russia has shifted its military campaign to eastern Ukraine after a series of defeats around Kyiv and other areas.

The Kremlin is now aiming to seize the two big eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, and its forces are moving south and west towards Kramatorsk and its northern neighbour Slovyansk.

Shortly before the missile strike, after 10:30 local time (07:30 GMT), Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko posted details of train departures on his Facebook page.

Donetsk regional military administration leader Pavlo Kyrylenko said the station had been hit by a Tochka-U missile. Debris from one of the rockets could be seen lying on the grass near the station.

A Russian-backed separatist leader said Ukraine had carried out the attack itself as a "provocation", and Russia's defence ministry insisted it did not use the type of Tochka-U missile that was fired, whereas the Ukrainian military did.

"One of our guys at the warehouse said he had seen Ukrainian air defence intercept one of the rockets," said Nathan Mook. "These were missiles, he could see the wings on the missile as it was intercepted."

Mr Mook's aid group World Central Kitchen was distributing food at the station. He said they were heading to a warehouse to pick up flour and were working on setting up a distribution hub at the station.