Three dead and nine injured after train crashes in eastern Belgium

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The scene at the crash site in eastern Belgium.

AT LEAST three people have lost their lives and nine others injured in a high-speed train crash in the Belgian municipality of Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, Liege Province.

The passenger train was travelling at 90km/h when it slammed into the back of a freight train at 11pm on Sunday June 5, said a spokesman for Belgian railway infrastructure management firm Infrabel.

Some of the injured passengers had to be cut free from the wreckage and are said to be in a critical condition.

“The passenger train is really in a bad way, it’s stunning,” said mayor of Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, Francis Dejon. “The front carriage is scrunched back up on itself. We were very lucky not to have more victims.”

“Two of the six carriages derailed and are lying on the tracks,” read a joint statement by Infrabel and the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB).

The circumstances surrounding the accident remain unclear, with no indication as to why the two trains were travelling on the same track, although Infrabel said there has been a “lightning incident” earlier on Sunday, and a SNCB tweet referred to a signaling fault, although it said this had been cleared by 9.30pm.

The passenger train, which had around 40 people on board, was travelling from Liege to Namur when the tragedy occurred.

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