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Police officers at the scene of the train accident: The locomotive should tow the train
Photo: Erika Ïurèová / dpa
After a serious train accident with dozens of injuries in Slovakia, the police have started investigations into the question of guilt.
This was announced by Transport Minister Andrej Doležal, who rushed to the scene of the accident, on Saturday night on TV news channel TA3.
On Friday evening, a locomotive near the northern Slovakian municipality of Strečno drove into a passenger train.
As a spokesman for the state railway company explained, the locomotive had been called to tow the passenger train that had stopped due to a defect.
The train was standing on a confusing part of the route between two tunnels.
The collision happened near the Vrútky railway junction, where the railway lines from the interior to Bratislava and those to the Czech Republic meet.
74 people injured
Slovakian Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský told the TASR news agency that the rescue workers had counted 74 injured people, around half of whom had been treated on site for minor injuries.
According to him, 34 patients needed treatment in one of the hospitals in the area.
Fifteen suffered fractures and other injuries that required hospital treatment.
But none of the three who were particularly badly injured were in mortal danger, the minister said.
The accident site is around 220 kilometers north of the capital Bratislava.
According to the police, the collision resulted in property damage of around two million euros.
ani/AFP/dpa
