1 dead, dozens hurt in train crash near Prague
Rescuers work next to trains damaged after a collision near the city of Cesky Brod in the Czech Republic on Wednesday. A train driver died and dozens of passengers were injured in a collision.
A train driver died and dozens of passengers were injured when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train near Prague, a Czech minister and rescuers said on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately ... I have learnt there is one dead,” Transport Minister Karel Havlicek told public broadcaster Czech Television.
Rescuers said the dead man was the driver of the passenger train, which was carrying more than 100 passengers.
“He was found lifeless in his wrecked cabin,” the regional rescue service wrote on its website.
Havlicek told Czech Radio later that the driver had most probably ignored a red light.
The accident occurred on Tuesday evening near the town of Cesky Brod, about 30 kilometers east of Prague, on a busy railway connecting the capital with the east of the country.
Havlicek said two people had suffered very serious injuries.
Rescuers said another eight passengers with serious injuries and 25 with lighter injuries were taken to hospital.
A week ago, two people died and dozens were injured when regional trains crashed in the west of the Czech Republic. Several minor accidents have been reported on Czech railways over the past week.
