More than 150 injured in S.Africa train crash: medics

At least 150 people were injured when two trains collided in south Johannesburg on Friday evening, South African officials said, adding that there were no confirmed fatalities.

One train was reported to have ploughed into a stationery train near Booysens station as workers headed home from the city, the economic capital of South Africa.

“We don’t have the exact number but it’s more than 150 people injured,” Russel Meiring, spokesman for the ER24 medical service that was treating people at the accident site, told AFP.

“About 100 people have been removed from the scene to hospital. We believe there is no one trapped inside anymore.”

He said there were no reported deaths, while some local media said the total number of injured could reach more than 200.

A commuter told the Eyewitness News website that one train derailed and hit the other.

Rail authorities at the scene told AFP that the cause of the crash had not yet been identified and that investigations would continue overnight and in the morning.

Emergency workers carried badly injured people to dozens of waiting ambulances as shocked passengers sat on the ground and received treatment for minor injuries.

Some passengers were given medical care inside the wrecked carriages before being carefully lifted down a steep embankment on stretchers.

The accident happened at the height of the evening rush hour when the trains were packed with people heading from Johannesburg city centre to residential areas.

Buses were laid on to take uninjured passengers home, while train services were disrupted across the south of the city.

The last major train crash in South Africa was in April when a guard was killed and 240 people injured in a similar accident in Johannesburg as two crowded commuter trains collided.