Belgium: High-speed passenger train crashes into freight carrier; three dead

A passenger train travelling at high speed has crashed into the back of a freight train in the eastern Belgian municipality of Saint-Georges-Sur-Meuse, killing three people and injuring dozens.

“A train... carrying around 40 passengers crashed into the back of a freight train on the same track. The collision derailed two of the six carriages,” Belgian railways SNCB said in a statement.

The accident occurred on the line linking Namur and Liege in the east of the country.

Frederic Sacre, spokesman for Belgian railway infrastructure manager Infrabel, said the crash took place when the passenger train was travelling at high speed.

RTL broadcasting said the passenger train carrying about 40 people had been traveling at 90km/hr when it hit the freight train shortly after 11pm.

The front carriage was completely turned on its side, witnesses said, and several passengers had to be extracted from the wreckage.

The circumstances of the accident were not immediately clear, with questions remaining over whether the passenger train was able to brake before the crash.