Belgian runaway train kills two rail workers

BRUSSELS: Two Belgian railway workers were killed and several passengers injured Monday after a train being recovered from a previous accident rolled away and hit people repairing the track then collided with another passenger train, emergency services said.
The train was initially involved in a collision on Monday morning with a car at Morlanwelz, at a crossing near the industrial town of Charleroi in southern Belgium, causing the vehicle burst into flames and damaging the first carriage of the train, they said.
The line was closed for the rest of the day while engineers tried to clear the line, but as the train was being towed on Monday night, it became detached and hit a group of workers who were repairing the tracks following the earlier fire.
Two railway workers from the group were killed and two were seriously injured, police and firefighters said.
The train then continued out of control until it hit another passenger train at La Louviere around 4km away, leaving five other people with light or moderate injuries, they said.
Transport minister Francois Bellot said the triple incident was under investigation. — AFP