A teenage girl in India has killed herself after fearing the Big Bang experiment in Switzerland may cause the world to end.

Local Indian authorities said the 16-year-old girl from Madhya Pradesh drank pesticide and was rushed to the hospital but died later.

Physicists around the world celebrated the first tests on Wednesday of a huge particle-smashing machine they hope will simulate the creation of the universe.

Experiments using the underground Large Hadron Collider, the biggest and most complex machine ever made, could revamp modern physics and unlock secrets about the universe and its origins.

The girl, named Chayya, killed herself after watching doomsday predictions made on Indian news programmes, her father said.

"In the past two days, Chayya had asked me and other relatives about the world coming to an end on September 10," he told local television in India.

"We tried to divert her attention and told her she should not worry about such things, but to no avail."

Physicists brushed off suggestions that the experiment could create tiny black holes that could cause problems with the planet.

"The worries that scientists had were nothing to do with being swallowed up by black holes and everything to do with technical hitches or electronic failure," Jim al-Khalili, a physicist at Britain's University of Surrey, said.

"Now, after a collective sigh of relief, the real fun starts," al-Khalili said.

"No matter what we find, we will be unlocking the secrets of the universe."