Fourteen people were killed and 60 others injured in a train collision in southern Poland on Saturday as rescue work is on the way, local media reported.
Fourteen people were killed and 60 others injured in a train collision in southern Poland on Saturday as rescue work is on the way, local media reported.
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Fourteen people were killed and 60 others injured in a train collision in southern Poland on Saturday as rescue work is on the way, local media reported. |
Poland's Interior Minister confirmed the new death toll about the train clash, as hundreds of firefighters and policemen were working hard on the scene to help and rescue passengers trapped inside the train.
More fatalities in the accident, which Polish Transport Minister Slawomir Nowak described as the "most serious railway catastrophes" in Poland's recent history, were not ruled out.
According to Polish news agency PAP, the accident took place at around 9 pm local time near the city of Zawiercie, Silesia province, when one train traveling from Warsaw to Krakow collided head-on with another heading from the eastern city of Przemysl to Warsaw.
"I know there are a few people dead," said Polish Transport Minister Slawomir Nowak told a local TV station, calling the accident "the worst of the last few years."
"At this time we have contact with several people who are inside the wreck. We are trying to reach them," J. Wojtasik, a firefighting official told the TVN24 channel at the scene.
"We have a sufficient amount of equipment and people. Those who have escaped on their own or were drawn out from the trains are taken care of," he added.
The Krakow-bound train was driving on the wrong track, Andrzej Pawlowski, a railway official, told the TVN24 channel.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk had arrived at the scene, where some 200 firefighters, policemen and medical workers were rescuing those injured from the wreckage and sending them to nearby hospitals.
Police said two people were killed on the spot when the two trains collided, while more people were trapped in the trains.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known.