Four people were killed and scores injured Thursday when a train collided with a car and truck in South Africa, emergency responders said.
The train was traveling from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg when the collision occurred, causing a fire to break out in one of the carriages, said Russel Meiring, a spokesman for ER 24, one of the country’s private medical emergency services.
About 100 people were injured, he said, some of them seriously.
Tebogo Magoro, a spokesman for the private medical emergency service Netcare 911, confirmed the death of four people at the scene.
The train was between Hennenman and Kroonstad in the Free State province when the collision occurred, Meiring said.
Provincial fire and medical services who were the first to arrive on scene found several carriages lying on their side, he said. Paramedics evacuated the train and assessed passengers’ injuries while firefighters battled the blaze, which had spread from one carriage to others.
The injured are being transported to nearby hospitals for urgent treatment, Meiring said.