Belgian train crash killed 18 people by Magdalena Rosova

Crash of two trains near Halle in Belgium killed at least 18 people. Train services and also high-speed link between Brussels and Paris have been interrupted. A head-on collision injured another 162 people. Emergency workers are searching for more bodies in the wreckage of the trains. Anja De Wolf, crisis centre official, do not expect more victims but there may be more bodies trapped under the carriages. It was one of the worst rail accidents in Belgian history. The trains full of commuters traveling to work in the capital crashed around 8:30 in the morning. The accident involved about 250-300 people in the both trains. Thousands of travellers were stranded elsewhere ! as Eurostar and Thalys suspended their services to and from the city. Survivors of the accident were taken to a nearby sports centre to be treated. The bodies of 15 men and three women were recovered. Another 162 people were injured, 11 of them seriously. One of the train drivers is believed to me among the victims, but the identification of all the bodies will take another day. Firefighters pulled the bodies out of the wreckage and also collected fragments of clothes to help identify the victims. The investigators are searching for the cause of the crash. Apparently, one of the train did not stop at a red light and hit the other train at high speed. The train line where the accident happen has a special system which halt trains automatically at a stop sign, but one of the trains did not had the system. Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme is canceled his trip to Balkans and returned to Belgium. Belgian King Albert II did the same when he interrupted his holiday in Fr! ance.

related story (sgx16488): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8515855.stm...

by Magdalena Rosova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

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