Five people were killed and 24 others injured when a freight train rear-ended a passenger train on Saturday in southern Zimbabwe, state television reported.
”The derailment occurred after a goods train that was travelling from Rutenga to Gweru rammed into the back of a passenger train,” the broadcaster said.
Four of those killed in the accident were employees of National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), travelling on the freight train, while the fifth was a person on the passenger train, it said.
The injured were taken to hospitals in the southern cities of Bulawayo and Gweru, the report said. Six of the survivors were described as having severe injuries.
An official from the NRZ said that the accident, which occurred early on Saturday, could have been caused by ”the non-functioning of the parastatal’s central train-control system”, which operates signals on the rail network.
The accident comes a little more than a week after 34 passengers were injured when 10 carriages and a dining car derailed near Dete in north-western Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s ageing rail network links major towns and cities but is suffering from a shortage of money for spare parts and maintenance amid the country’s economic collapse. — Sapa-dpa