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29 March 2024

Johannesburg train crash: 200 injured

An injured passenger is loaded into an ambulance at the Booysens train station near Johannesburg Friday July 17, 2015. (AP)

Published
By Agencies

More than 200 passengers were injured in a commuter train crash in south Johannesburg late Friday, medical officials said, as investigators examined the scene the morning after the accident.

No fatalities were reported from the collision when one train ploughed into a stationery train near Booysens station as workers headed home from the city, the economic capital of South Africa.

"Just over 200 patients were treated in hospital and many have already been discharged by this morning," Russel Meiring, spokesman for the ER24 emergency medical service, told AFP on Saturday.

In dark, cold conditions, emergency workers had carried badly injured people to dozens of waiting ambulances as shocked passengers sat on the ground and received treatment for minor injuries.

Some passengers were given medical care inside the wrecked carriages before being carefully lifted down a steep embankment on stretchers.

The accident happened at the height of the evening rush hour when the trains were packed with people travelling from Johannesburg city centre to residential areas.

A spokesman for the rail authorities said the cause of the crash was unknown and that an investigation was underway at the site.