4 killed, 20 injured in Czech train collision

At least four people were killed and 23 others injured after a passenger train collided with a freight train on Wednesday evening in the Czech Republic, reported Xinhua, quoting the Czech Television.

The accident happened at around 11 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) in the northeastern Czech city of Pardubice, when a passenger train traveling from the Czech capital of Prague to the eastern Slovak city of Kosice collided head-on with a freight train.

According to local rescuers, more than 300 people were traveling in the passenger train. Photos from the scene showed the first carriage of the train was derailed and partially overturned.

Both train drivers survived the accident, and the collision might have occurred "due to an error" by the passenger train driver, the report said.

"The collision of two trains in Pardubice is a great misfortune. We are all thinking of the victims and the injured. My sincere condolences to all the bereaved," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on X, formerly Twitter.

The Czech Television reported later that all passengers had been rescued from the passenger train.