5 Mar 2012

16 dead in train crash

7:33 pm on 5 March 2012

The death toll from a rail crash in southern Poland has risen to 16. Two express trains collided head-on on Saturday.

Nearly 60 of the estimated 350 passengers on board were injured when the trains smashed into each other at high speed. One was on the wrong track.

Officials say they cannot rule out finding more bodies in the wreckage.

The crash occurred at 9.15pm local time when a train travelling north from Przemysl to Warsaw collided with a southbound train from Warsaw to Krakow.

Scheduled engineering works were taking place on one track at Szczekociny station at the time.

President Bronislaw Komorowski will announce a period of national mourning once emergency teams complete the work removal of the wreckage from the track.