6 Jun 2024

Four dead, dozens injured in Czech train crash

12:42 pm on 6 June 2024
26 May 2023, Saxony, Bad Gottleuba-Berggießhübel: Police officers from the Czech Republic walk along the German-Czech border during the visit of Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser. With the visit, the Federal Minister of the Interior wants to inform herself about the Joint Center of German-Czech Police and Customs Cooperation Petrovice-Schwandorf. Photo: Robert Michael/dpa (Photo by ROBERT MICHAEL / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP)

Rescue services, including police, are at the scene and are trying to rescue passengers. File pic Photo: AFP / DPA

Four people died and 26 were injured after a passenger train collided with a freight train in the Czech city of Pardubice on Wednesday evening, the regional governor said.

Rescue services were on the scene, the police said, and officers were evacuating passengers.

The crash occurred in Pardubice, part of the country's main rail corridor from Prague to the east.

The passenger train was operated by rail company RegioJet, Martin Netolicky, governor of the Pardubice region, said on Facebook.

"A head-on collision between a RegioJet train and a freight train claimed several lives and left dozens injured," he said.

Footage after the crash on news website idnes.cz showed at least one carriage off the track, while police showed on their X social media account a line of emergency service vehicles and a helicopter.

A spokesperson for the Railway Administration's firefighters told Czech TV several were seriously injured.

The country's interior and transport ministers said they were headed to the accident scene, while Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed his condolences to the victims on X.

-Reuters