A luxury train from South Africa, carrying international tourists to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for the Easter holiday, crashed into another train on Friday. The accident caused several carriages to derail and injured several people.
Liezl Maclean, a spokeswoman for Rovos Rail, said that four crew members were hurt when the passenger train collided with a freight train in Zimbabwe.
The Rovos Rail train was travelling from Pretoria to the popular tourist destination of Victoria Falls. Said Maclean:
There were no injuries in terms of the guests that we are aware of.
But a local rail worker, who asked not to be named as they weren’t authorised to speak to the media, said 18 people had been injured in total.
According to the worker, 14 of them were taken to Gwanda Provincial Hospital, while another four were admitted to Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo.
They didn’t say how many of the injured were passengers or staff, or whether anyone on the freight train was hurt.
Photos shared on social media showed rescue teams carrying a man on a stretcher through a gap in the wreckage’s twisted roof.
The crash happened in the southern Zimbabwean town of Gwanda and involved the Rovos Rail train and a freight train run by the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway.
Maclean also said there were at least 47 tourists on board the Rovos Rail train at the time of the crash.
It’s still not clear what caused the accident.
More: Gulf News
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