14 Dead in South Africa Train Crash

Fourteen people were killed and as many as 260 injured Thursday when a train collided with a car and truck in South Africa, emergency responders said.

The train was traveling from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg when the collision occurred, causing a fire to break out in one of the carriages and then spread to others, said Russel Meiring, a spokesman for ER 24, one of the country’s private medical emergency services.

Tebogo Magoro, a spokesman for the private medical emergency service Netcare 911, said 14 people were confirmed dead.

Rescue workers are seen at the site of a train crash Thursday between Hennenman and Kroonstad.

As many as 260 of the roughly 700 passengers on the train could be hurt, Magoro said.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers put out small fires that continue to burn in some of the carriages, he said.

Emergency services are still working on freeing people from overturned carriages that remain very hot.

Meiring earlier said about 100 people were injured, some of them seriously.

The train was between Hennenman and Kroonstad in the Free State province when the collision occurred, Meiring said.

Provincial fire and medical services who were the first to arrive on scene found several carriages lying on their side, he said. Paramedics evacuated the train and assessed passengers’ injuries while firefighters battled the blaze, which had spread from one carriage to others.

The injured are being transported to nearby hospitals for urgent treatment, Meiring said.

Source: CNN