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March 5, 2012

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Probe into head-on crash begins

AN investigation has been launched after two trains running on the same track collided head-on in southern Poland late on Saturday, leaving 16 people dead and 58 injured.

This was the country's worst train disaster in more than 20 years.

Several passengers were foreigners, including people from Ukraine, Spain and France, but none of them appeared to be among the dead or badly injured, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into how one train ended up on the wrong track, but Tusk said it was too soon to draw any conclusions.

An unnamed passenger described the moment of impact to news station TVN24.

"I hit the person in front of me. The lights went out. Everything flew," he said. "We flew over the compartment like bags. We could hear screams. We prayed."

Equipment was being brought in yesterday to try and reach a body in the wreckage, while the injured are being treated at local hospitals.

A doctor, Szymon Nowak, said many of the injured were in a serious condition.

"It's a very, very sad day and night in the history of Polish railways and for all of us," Tusk said.

Poland's trains are generally seen as safe and used by many of the county's population of 38 million.

One train was traveling from the eastern city of Przemysl to Warsaw, while the other - on the wrong track - was heading south from Warsaw to Krakow.

Maintenance work took place on the tracks before the accident, officials said.


 

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