Several dead, many injured in Ankara train crash
ANKARA Nine people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in Turkey when a high-speed train collided with a locomotive and crashed into a station platform and overpass in an Ankara suburb early yesterday, officials said.
Rescuers worked to free people trapped under the mangled wreckage at Marsandiz train station, 8km from central Ankara.
It was not clear at which speed the train and locomotive were travelling when the collision occurred. There was light snow on the tracks.
The train had been heading from Ankara to the central Turkish province of Konya and was not due to stop at Marsandiz.
Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin said the locomotive, which lay battered 20m further ahead, carried out track inspections.
Three train drivers were among the nine killed in the crash, Transport Minister Cahit Turhan told reporters on the scene.
There were 206 passengers on the high-speed train, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency, which also reported that the Ankara state prosecutor's office had launched an investigation.
Turkey has been developing a network of high-speed rail links during President Tayyip Erdogan's 16-year-old rule.
A previous train accident in 2014 in the southern Turkish province of Mersin, left 10 dead
- REUTERS
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