At least six people have died and at least five more were injured when an express train collided with a bus in Slovakia, the state rescue service announced on Thursday evening.
More than 100 passengers were on the Eurocity train travelling from Prague towards Budapest when it crashed into the regional bus near the town of Nove Zamky, the TASR news agency reported, citing information from the police and the state railway company ZSSK.
Public broadcaster RTVS reported that the bus was quite literally torn apart in the collision. The locomotive of the train caught fire.
The cause of the accident was initially unclear. Media speculated that the signalling system at the level crossing might have been damaged by flooding that had persisted since Wednesday evening. However, there was no official confirmation of this.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok, after travelling to the scene of the accident, confirmed that all of those killed had been aboard the bus.
The train driver was among the injured, he said. They were brought to hospital in Bratislava and other cities as the nearby hospital of Nove Zamky was closed due to the floods, according to the minister.
