South African train collision kills three and injures hundreds

Two passenger trains collided during the morning rush hour in South Africa’s capital city Pretoria on Tuesday, killing three people and injuring hundreds, emergency services said.

Two critically injured people were airlifted from the scene of the crash in Mountain View, northern Pretoria, spokesman Charles Mabaso told AFP.

A total of 641 people were hurt in the crash, with 11 sustaining critical injuries and 62 suffering “moderate” injuries.

“The current fatalities stand at three, but it still might rise,” said Mr Mabaso.

When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found carriages from both trains tilting half off the track.

“Numerous passengers were found either in the trains or found walking around on the scene,” Russel Meiring, a spokesman for the ER24 emergency services, said in a statement.

Rail accidents are common in South Africa.

A year ago, in one of the country’s worst rail disasters, a passenger train travelling from the southern city of Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg smashed into a lorry at a level crossing near Kroonstad in the central Free State province and burst into flames, killing 19 people and wounding 254.


In 2016-2017, 495 people were killed on the country’s railways according to the Railway Safety Regulator, an increase of eight per cent on the previous year.