Poland mourns 16 killed in head-on train crash
Baku, March 5 (AZERTAC). Poland`s President Bronislaw Komorowski announced a two-day national mourning period on Sunday for the 16 people killed in a head-on collision of two trains in the country`s worst rail accident in more than two decades.
The trains collided at an average speed of 100 km (60 miles) near the town of Szczekociny in southern Poland on Saturday night after one of them switched to the wrong track minutes before the crash, said Transport Minister Slawomir Nowak. Most of the carriages had derailed, some were crumpled or broken in half and others were lying on their side along the track. Rescuers recovered 16 bodies from the wreckage and were able to identify nine of the victims, Interior Minister Jacek Cichocki said. Nearly 60 of the estimated 350 passengers on board were injured. Three remained in intensive care.
Komorowski also visited some of the survivors in hospital.
Officials said it was too early to speculate about the cause of the collision, but said human error could not be ruled out. The bodies of two of three drivers from the two trains were found. The fate of the third was not immediately known, although he could be among those still to be identified.
In 1990, 16 people were killed in a train crash in Warsaw.
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