Bratislava: Seven people were killed and five injured when a passenger train and a bus collided at a railway crossing in southern Slovakia.
The accident happened around 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) near the southwestern town of Nove Zamky, CTK news agency reported.
Train spokeswoman Vladimira Bahylova told AFP that the Eurokit train had left Prague for Budapest.
“Seven people suffered non-life-threatening injuries,” Slovakia’s rescue service said, updating the death toll to six.
“Five people were injured,” he said.
Emergency services spokeswoman Petra Klimesova told AFP that the injured needed “urgent medical attention”.
Bahylova said the train driver was “burnt because the locomotive caught fire”.
He said the collision occurred at a railway crossing protected by barriers and equipped with light signals.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok then went to the place.
He told reporters it was unclear whether the cause was technical or human failure.
Local media published video footage of passengers carrying suitcases next to the train as it rose into the sky in thick gray smoke.
Katarina Molnarova, the passenger who recorded the video, told AFP she heard crashes and crashes as the train pulled into Nove Zamky station.
A 43-year-old beautician from the southern city of Sturovo said: “We got off after a few minutes … We saw the front part of the train was on fire.”
“There was no screaming or panic… We took our luggage and left… I saw part of the bus being blown away by the collision”.
