The Railway Safety Regulator is investigating a passenger train collision that took place in Soweto at about 5.50pm on Thursday afternoon.
A team of the regulator’s inspectors were at the scene following the collision.
A Metrorail train travelling from Mzimhlophe Station towards Phomolong station in Orlando collided with a stationary Soweto Business Express train, the regulator said.
The collision resulted in multiple injuries. No fatalities have been reported. The injured were assisted by emergency services at the scene and taken to nearby hospitals.
An investigation into what caused the collision was underway, said the Railway Safety Regulator.
Sapa reported that 644 passengers were injured, two critically, when the trains collided in Meadowlands in Soweto near Johannesburg, paramedics said.
“We had a total of two men who were critically injured and airlifted to Charlotte Maxeke academic hospital, and 642 with minor and serious injuries,” Netcare 911 spokesperson Jeff Wicks told the South African Press Association from the scene.
“[The increase in total injuries] shows the chaos of the scene. We had people who were sprayed 200m around the trains … on arrival, paramedics found passengers from both trains lying on the track,” he said.
Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Synock Matobako said that about 150 of the injured were transported to various hospitals in the area. — I-Net Bridge