High-speed train-locomotive collision in Ankara suburb kills nine, injures 50

Three train drivers among those killed.

December 13, 2018 02:47 pm | Updated 04:36 pm IST - ANKARA

Members of rescue services work at the scene of a train accident in Ankara, Turkey on December 13, 2018. A high-speed train hit a railway engine and crashed into a pedestrian overpass at a station in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday, killing more than 5 people and injuring more than 40 others, officials and news reports said.

Members of rescue services work at the scene of a train accident in Ankara, Turkey on December 13, 2018. A high-speed train hit a railway engine and crashed into a pedestrian overpass at a station in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday, killing more than 5 people and injuring more than 40 others, officials and news reports said.

Nine people were killed and nearly 50 injured when a high-speed train collided with a locomotive and crashed into a station platform and overpass in a suburb of Turkey capital Ankara early on Thursday, officials said.

Rescuers worked to free people trapped under the mangled wreckage at the Marsandiz train station, 8 km from central Ankara. It was not clear at which speed the train and locomotive were travelling when the collision occurred. There was light snow on the tracks.

The train had been heading from Ankara to the central province of Konya and was not due to stop at Marsandiz.

Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin said the locomotive, which lay battered 20 metres further ahead, carried out track inspections.

Three train drivers were among the nine killed in the crash, Transport Minister Cahit Turhan told reporters on the scene.

There were 206 passengers on the high-speed train, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency, which also reported that the Ankara state prosecutor's office had launched an investigation.

Turkey has been developing a network of high-speed rail links during Tayyip Erdogan's 16-year-old rule as it looks to ease the burden on increasingly congested highways.

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