Sixteen killed as trains collide head-on

Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “shocked and saddened” by the tragedy and wrote to Polish counterpart Donald Tusk to express his sympathy.

The powerful collision near the town of Szczekociny, just north of Krakow, occurred after one of the trains ended up on the wrong track. The impact left several hulks of mangled metal smashed on the tracks, with cars overturned and on their sides. Rescuers worked through the night to recover bodies and help the wounded.

Maintenance work was being done on the tracks in the area, but officials said it was too early to determine the cause of the disaster.

An American woman was among the dead.Mr Tusk said several of the passengers were foreigners, including people from Ukraine, Spain and France, but none of them were among the dead or mostly seriously injured.

President Bronislaw Komorowski visited the site, saying that when rescue efforts were over he would make an announcement about a period of national mourning.

“This is our most tragic train disaster in many, many years,” he said.

An unnamed passenger interviewed on the all-news station TVN24 said he felt the force of the collision.

“I hit the person in front of me. The lights went out. Everything flew,” he said. “We flew over the compartment like bags. We could hear screams. We prayed.”

Rescuers brought in heavy equipment to free a body from the wreckage, and ended up finding two, a spokesman for firefighters, Radoslaw Lendor, said.

A doctor in one of the hospitals, Szymon Nowak, said many of the injured were in a serious condition, with some in artificially induced comas.

“It’s a very, very sad day and night in the history of Polish railways and for all of us,” Mr Tusk said.