Train Collides with Bus in Russia, Killing At Least 19

 

 

Russian officials say a train has slammed into a bus at a railway crossing east of Moscow, killing at least 19 people -- many of them apparently citizens of Uzbekistan.

 

Regional police said the collision occurred at around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT/UTC) on October 6 near a train station close to the city of Vladimir, about 190 kilometers east of the capital.

 

The bus had Kazakh license plates and Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Anuar Zhainakov said it was carrying 55 Uzbek passengers and two Kazakh drivers.

 

One of the drivers was among the dead, Zhainakov said on Facebook. At least one child was killed and at least five injured people were hospitalized after the collision, reports said.

 

The regional Interior Ministry branch said the bus driver was trying to cross the tracks despite a red light.

 

The spokeswoman, Rita Shlyakhova, said that the bus broke down on the railroad crossing and that most of the passengers were asleep at the time.

 

"The driver yelled, and 34 people jumped out of the bus to push it," RIA Novosti quoted Shlyakhova as saying. "They survived. Those who stayed in the bus died. It was literally torn apart."

 

The train was reportedly traveling from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod.

 

Investigators have opened a probe into the incident.