At least 42 people have been killed and nine people hurt in a collision between a train and a small bus in the eastern Ukraine, officials say.
The incident happened near the town of the Marhanets, south of the main regional city of the Dnipropetrovsk.
The inter-city passenger bus tried to cross the track, ignoring the warning of an approaching in train, reports said.
Some of the injured are in a critical condition and the death toll could rise.
Railway officials said all the casualties were on the bus.
'Utter carnage'
The ministry of the interior said the train had dragged the bus for 30 metres after the collision.
"The driver of the bus broke traffic laws by driving through a red light before colliding with the train," a spokeswoman for the regional traffic police told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
The Transport Minister Kostyantyn Yefymenko is quoted in several Ukrainian news agencies recounting what survivors have already been saying to investigators.
"The bus was standing still," said Mr Yefymenko, "and the driver was standing near the bus, then he got in and started driving right before the locomotive."
This, he said, was despite passengers warning the driver that the alarm lights were flashing.
No comments:
Post a Comment