At least 57 people have been injured after two trains collided in the Czech Republic on Thursday.
The incident between a passenger train and an express service took place this morning at 6.20am near the city of Ceske Budejovice, around 74 miles south of Prague, on the line between Zlív and Dívčí.
A spokeswoman for a regional hospital told CTK that four people had been admitted with serious injuries.
All passengers were evacuated, but firefighters had to free the driver of one of the trains, the CTK news agency reported.
Images showed mainly damage to the front ends of the trains where they hit head-on.
The country’s transport minister, Martin Kupka, said that authorities are now investigating the cause of the crash, but preliminary information suggests that one of the trains passed a signal in the stop position.
He wrote on X: “I wish all the injured a speedy recovery. The Railway Inspectorate is already investigating the incident.
“According to preliminary information from the Railway Administration, the express train is likely to have passed a signal at STOP.”
The minister added that this accident shows “we must continue expanding modern safety systems capable of better preventing human error”.
Photos from the scene show two train carts smashed into each other, causing extensive damage.
The traffic between Ceske Budejovice and the city of Plzen was halted and was not expected to resume until the afternoon.
Jan Kučera, Inspector General of the Railway Inspection, said four inspectors are examining whether the incident resulted from human error, technical failure or systemic issues.
“The point is to find out what caused this extraordinary event,” Kučera told national broadcaster ČT24.
The incident is the latest in a string of recent train collisions. On Sunday evening, 13 people were hospitalised after a train collision in neighbouring Slovakia.
On 13 October, two fast trains collided in eastern Slovakia, injuring dozens of passengers,
