Accident in Slovakia

EuroCity collides with bus – five people dead

Six people died in a collision between an express train and a bus in Slovakia.(Bild: AFP/Police of Slovak Republic)

Six people died in a collision between a EuroCity train and a bus at a level crossing in Slovakia early on Thursday evening. Several people were injured.

According to local media, the collision occurred near Nove Zamky, around 110 kilometers east of the Slovakian capital Bratislava. The EuroCity was on its way from the Czech capital Prague to the Hungarian capital Budapest when the serious accident occurred.

The public TV station RTVS reported that the bus was literally torn apart in the collision. Video footage (see tweet below) showed that the train's locomotive was on fire. The important railroad line connecting Bratislava with Budapest is closed until further notice.

Signal system damaged by flooding
It was initially unclear why the accident occurred. Media reports speculated, among other things, that the signal system at the level crossing could have been damaged by the flooding that has been ongoing since Wednesday evening. There was initially no official confirmation of this.

The bus was literally torn apart when it collided with the train.(Bild: AFP/Police of Slovak Republic)

Emergency services near the level crossing where a EuroCity train collided with a bus(Bild: AP/Tlačová agentúra SR/Heinrich Misovic)

The more than 100 stranded passengers of the crashed train were taken by bus to the town of Sturovo on the Hungarian border, according to the Slovakian state railroad company ZSSK.

Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok confirmed at the scene of the accident that all the dead were passengers on the bus. Not all of them had been identified by the evening. The train driver was also among the injured, all others were bus passengers.