Dozens of passengers were injured in a head-on train collision in Vienna, Austria during the Monday morning rush hour.
"More than 41 people were hurt - five of them seriously - when two crowded commuter trains crashed head-on," MSN News reported. One of the train's drivers was among the seriously injured, according to the Austria Press Agency. No deaths were reported as of Monday afternoon.
The crash occurred because two trains were traveling in opposite directions on one set of rails, according to the Irish Times.
It took a rescue team of around 25 fire engines and several air ambulances to evacuate both train cars, reported the AFP news agency, and some people "had to be extracted from the wreckage of the crash using special cranes."
The two trains collided while technicians were working to repair a faulty switch on the line, MSN News reported. Trains normally run automatically, but the repair crew set operations to manual so they could resolve the technical defect with the switch.
Austrian Railways spokeswoman Sarah Nettel "said human error had not been ruled out as a possible cause of the crash," according to MSN News.
"A train got permission to travel when it should not have," she said.
"Of course we will investigate the causes for the collision," Nettel also told the AFP, "but at the moment, our priority is with the passengers."
Last September, another train apparently derailed in the same area, according to the AFP, but no one was injured that time. "An enquiry blamed human error" for that incident as well, the AFP reported, when a rail worker pointed a switch the wrong way.
"More than 41 people were hurt - five of them seriously - when two crowded commuter trains crashed head-on," MSN News reported. One of the train's drivers was among the seriously injured, according to the Austria Press Agency. No deaths were reported as of Monday afternoon.
The crash occurred because two trains were traveling in opposite directions on one set of rails, according to the Irish Times.
It took a rescue team of around 25 fire engines and several air ambulances to evacuate both train cars, reported the AFP news agency, and some people "had to be extracted from the wreckage of the crash using special cranes."
The two trains collided while technicians were working to repair a faulty switch on the line, MSN News reported. Trains normally run automatically, but the repair crew set operations to manual so they could resolve the technical defect with the switch.
Austrian Railways spokeswoman Sarah Nettel "said human error had not been ruled out as a possible cause of the crash," according to MSN News.
"A train got permission to travel when it should not have," she said.
"Of course we will investigate the causes for the collision," Nettel also told the AFP, "but at the moment, our priority is with the passengers."
Last September, another train apparently derailed in the same area, according to the AFP, but no one was injured that time. "An enquiry blamed human error" for that incident as well, the AFP reported, when a rail worker pointed a switch the wrong way.