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Several dead in Czech train crash

Other News Materials 8 August 2008 17:54 (UTC +04:00)

At least six people are reported to have died and many others have been injured after a train ran into a collapsed bridge in the Czech Republic, BBC reported.

A railway spokesperson said the accident, near the eastern town of Studenka, was "a serious disaster".

Firefighters are at the scene, helping remove the victims from the train, witnesses said.

The high-speed express train was travelling from the Polish city of Krakow to the Czech capital, Prague.

"An international train from Krakow to Prague ran into a collapsed bridge which fell on the rails in the area of the town Studenka," Radek Joklik, a spokesperson for Czech Railways, told local media.

Initially, officials had suggested that ten people had been killed and 100 people injured during the crash.

Czech railways officials said the train hit part of a motorway bridge undergoing construction work which collapsed on to the track while the train was approaching or passing underneath, derailing three passenger carriages and the locomotive.

Reports suggested the train was travelling at speeds of 140km/h (87 mph) when it hit the bridge at 1030 local time (0830GMT).

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