On Thursday night, a serious train accident occurred in Pardubice, about 100 kilometers east of Prague. A fully loaded passenger train collided head-on with a freight train, resulting in a tragic loss of life.
According to Der Spiegel, four people were killed and 23 others were injured, three of them moderately.
Interior Minister Vit Rakusan confirmed these figures and stated that a comparison with the passenger lists is currently taking place.
Numerous rescue workers, including firefighters, paramedics, doctors, and two rescue helicopters, were deployed to the scene of the accident.
The circumstances resulting in the collision are still unclear. It is also unknown whether the freight train was stationary or moving.
The Collision and Its Aftermath
The locomotives of both trains collided head-on, causing one carriage of the passenger train to derail and suffer severe damage.
The overnight express train, operated by the private railway company Regiojet, was traveling from Prague to Kosice in Slovakia and had more than 300 passengers on board. Many of the passengers were on their way to Ukraine.
Uninjured passengers were taken to emergency accommodation by bus.
Interior Minister Rakusan and Transport Minister Martin Kupka immediately went to the scene of the accident. Kupka stressed that it was still too early to speculate about the cause of the accident.
Initial media reports suggest that the driver of the express train may have overlooked a stop signal or that a switch was set incorrectly. An eyewitness told the newspaper Pravo that he noticed the train heading for the wrong track before the collision.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased via the online platform X, describing the collision as "a great tragedy."
