At least 18 people died and an estimated 80 were injured in Belgium on Monday as two trains collided outside the town of Halle, south of Brussels, in the worst rail accident to hit the country in a generation, dpa reported.
According to the latest official count, 15 men and three women died in the collision, which came at the peak of the morning rush hour, a spokesman at a regional crisis centre set up to coordinate the response to the disaster told the German Press Agency dpa.
That death toll is the same as in Belgium's worst ever post-war train accident. On August 15, 1974, a train from the southern town of Charleroi to the northern port of Antwerp derailed at high speed, killing 18 of its passengers and injuring 48.
Monday's smash could yet break that tragic record, as rescue workers continued to comb the wreckage in search of more bodies and officials warned that the death toll could rise.
A spokesman for the Brussels public prosecutor's office said that "18 to 20" people had been killed in the smash, but that reports that the death toll could reach 25 were "exaggerated."
The accident occurred at around 8.30 am (0730 GMT), as a north- bound train heading into Brussels collided almost head-on at a junction with a south-bound commuter train leaving the city.
The impact thrust the front carriages of both trains up into the air, crumpling the following carriages, smashing several of them off the tracks and sending a shock-wave through nearby buildings.
"There was a bright light, and then an explosion," eyewitness Nathalie Evenepoel told dpa.
"It was like an earthquake: the loud bang woke me up," said 21-year-old Wire Leire, who lives just 50 metres from the tracks.
Passengers said that they were thrown into the air or into one another at the moment of the crash, with people and baggage tumbling into heaps.
TV footage from the scene showed the walking wounded slipping and stumbling across the snowy tracks as rescue teams carried the more seriously injured away.
The Brussels prosecutor's office said that around 80 people had been injured, 20 of them seriously.
One of the trains was travelling from the Flemish town of Leuven, east of Brussels, to Braine-le-Comte, south of the city. The other was travelling from the town of Quievrain, on the French border, to the industrial city of Liege in eastern Belgium.
Provincial governor Lodewijk De Witte said that the accident had probably been caused by the southbound train running through a red light, but that that was still a preliminary analysis.
The company which runs Belgium's rail network, Infrabel, told the Belga news agency that the stretch of track in question was equipped with a safety system which would send trains a signal making them operate the emergency brake if they ran a red light.
But not all the trains operated by national rail company SNCB carry the necessary receiving equipment on board, Belga wrote.
Reacting to the crash, the Flemish Red Cross launched an emergency appeal for blood from donors with blood types O- and A-.
Prime Minister Yves Leterme cut short a visit to Kosovo to come to the scene of the crash, while his predecessor Herman Van Rompuy - now the president of the council of European Union member states - sent a message expressing his "shock and sorrow" at the accident.
Belgium's King Albert II broke off a holiday in France to visit the scene.
The crash caused widespread closures on railway lines leading into Brussels Midi station, the city's main terminus. International Eurostar and Thalys departures to London were halted, with Thalys services from Paris to Cologne forced to detour around Brussels.
EU leaders based in Brussels were quick to send their condolences. As well as Van Rompuy, the presidents of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, both addressed messages to the victims and their families.
The accident happened during the morning rush hour and after an overnight snowfall. Snow continued to fall throughout the morning, hampering rescue efforts.
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