Two Trains Collide in Tunisia, 95 People Injured

 Police inspect the damage to one of the locomotives in a train collision in the Jbel Jelloud area in the south of Tunisia's capital Tunis on March 21, 2022. (AFP)
Police inspect the damage to one of the locomotives in a train collision in the Jbel Jelloud area in the south of Tunisia's capital Tunis on March 21, 2022. (AFP)
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Two Trains Collide in Tunisia, 95 People Injured

 Police inspect the damage to one of the locomotives in a train collision in the Jbel Jelloud area in the south of Tunisia's capital Tunis on March 21, 2022. (AFP)
Police inspect the damage to one of the locomotives in a train collision in the Jbel Jelloud area in the south of Tunisia's capital Tunis on March 21, 2022. (AFP)

A head-on collision between two passenger trains injured 95 people Monday in the south of the Tunisian capital, emergency services said.

"The injured were taken to hospitals and there were no deaths," civil defense spokesman Moez Triaa told AFP, adding that only one of the trains was carrying passengers.

Most of the injured suffered bruises or fractures, none of them life-threatening, he said.

Many passengers were in shock, he added, saying around 15 ambulances had been dispatched to treat the wounded or take them to hospital.

The collision happened at 9:30 am local time (0830 GMT) in the Jbel Jelloud area, on the approach to a terminus in central Tunis.

An AFP reporter at the site saw the front of one of the trains had been caved in.

The SNCFT national train company said 84 people had been wounded and that "77 were able to leave hospital while seven others are under observation".

Transport Minister Rabi Majidi visited the site of the accident but did not speak to journalists.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear but the SNCFT said an inquiry had been opened.

Hours after the accident, the civil protection service said five people had been wounded when another train carrying 220 people was derailed on the way towards the Kef region west of Tunis.

Tunisia's ageing railway system has seen several deadly crashes in recent years.

Between 2017 and 2021, the country saw 173 train accidents which killed 229 people and injured 345, said Achraf Yehyaoui, spokesman for a governmental agency for preventing transport accidents.

At least five people were killed and more than 50 injured in late 2016 when a train slammed into a public bus near the site of Monday's crash.

An official said signals and safety gates had been out of service at the time of the crash.

The 2016 accident prompted the sacking of SNCFT chief Sabiha Derbal.

The previous year, the North African country experienced one of its worst railway disasters, with 18 people killed when a train hit a lorry and derailed at a level crossing south of the capital because of a signals failure.

The country of just under 12 million people also has a poor road safety record, with some 980 deaths and more than 6,500 injuries last year according to the interior ministry.



Israeli Troops, Palestinian Fighters Clash in West Bank after Incidents Near Settlements

Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
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Israeli Troops, Palestinian Fighters Clash in West Bank after Incidents Near Settlements

Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin.
Israeli troops searched areas around Jewish settlements after two separate security incidents on Friday evening. In Jenin itself, drones and helicopters circled overhead while the sound of sporadic firing could be heard in the city, said Reuters.
Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months.
The operation, which Israel says was mounted to block Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, has drawn international calls for a halt.
At least 19 Palestinians, including armed fighters and civilians, have now been killed since it began. The Israeli military said on Saturday a soldier had been killed during the fighting in the West Bank.
The Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters from armed factions that have long had a strong presence in Jenin and the adjoining refugee camp, a densely populated township housing families driven from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of Israel.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday a child had been taken to hospital in Jenin with a bullet wound to the head.
The escalation in hostilities in the West Bank takes place as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas group still rages in the coastal Gaza Strip nearly 11 months since it began, and hostilities with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in the Israel-Lebanon border area have intensified.
Late on Friday, Israeli forces said two men were killed in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement cluster located south of Jerusalem, that the military assessed were both attempted attacks on Israelis.
In the first, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing attack. The military said a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and tried to attack soldiers.
In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a car attempted to ram a security guard and infiltrate the Karmei Tzur settlement. The car was chased by security forces and crashed and an explosive device in it was detonated, the military said in a statement.
The two deaths were confirmed by Palestinian health authorities but they gave no details on how they died.
Troops combed the area following the two incidents. Security forces also carried out raids in the city of Hebron, where the two men came from.
Hamas praised what it called a "double heroic operation" in the West Bank. It said in a statement it was "a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation's aggression and targeting of our people and land continue".
The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks.
Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said on Saturday Israel would step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation.
Amid the gunfire, armored bulldozers searching for roadside bombs have ploughed up large stretches of paved roads and water pipes have been damaged, leading to flooding in some areas.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that triggered the Gaza war, at least 660 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian tallies, some by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers who have carried out frequent attacks on Palestinian communities.
Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions in the West Bank - under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war - and the military has as a result cranked up its operations there.