Several people were injured on Friday when a passenger train derailed after smashing into a milk tanker in the northeastern Netherlands, police said.
The tanker truck was leaving a farm in the rural area of Winsum, some 200 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam, and “was probably driving over an unguarded railway crossing when it was hit by an oncoming train,” Groningen police said on their Twitter account.
“Several are believed to be injured” but the driver had escaped unhurt, they said, adding dozens of rescue workers had been rushed to the scene.
Groningen police spokesman Ernest Zinsmeyer told the NOS public broadcaster: “Most of the injured are only slightly hurt, but one person has been taken to hospital.”
It was not immediately known how many people were in the train when the crash happened, but a helicopter was also said to be on the way.
Television images from the NOS public broadcaster showed the first few carriages of the train had derailed, and it was partly tipped onto its side in a field.
Rescuers could also be seen carrying stretchers to the derailed train. But police said other people had already been treated for their injuries on the scene.
Train links to the region had been stopped for the time being.
Asharq Al-Awsat English
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