Commuter Train Collision in Indonesia Kills 3, Injures 28

People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS
People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS
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Commuter Train Collision in Indonesia Kills 3, Injures 28

People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS
People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS

Rescuers were battling on Friday to extricate two people trapped between railway cars after commuter trains collided on Indonesia’s main island of Java, killing at least three and injuring 28, authorities said.

Video images from broadcasters MetroTV and Kompas TV showed passengers being helped out of train carriages, some of which had gone off the rails entirely.

Rescuers were weighing options to save the two people found squeezed between cars, said Herry Marantika, the head of a rescue agency, but declined to say if they were still alive.

Ambulances gathered to take the injured to hospital, police said, following the collision at 6:03 a.m. (1103 GMT) near the provincial capital of Bandung.

The three dead were train crew, said Ibrahim Tompo, a regional spokesperson of West Java police, adding that a total of 478 passengers were aboard the trains, with the 28 injured taken to hospital.

Transportation ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati apologized for the accident and for the disruption of railway services in the West Java region.

She said the cause of the accident was being investigated.

The government has spent billions of dollars on improving infrastructure, including roads, railways, airports and power plants, in the world’s largest archipelago nation, home to more than 270 million people.



EU Commission Chief Has 'Severe Pneumonia'

FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
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EU Commission Chief Has 'Severe Pneumonia'

FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is ill with “severe pneumonia” and has canceled her appointments for the next two weeks, her office announced Friday.

According to The Associated Press, spokesman Stefan De Keersmaeker said her agenda had to be cleared of meetings in Lisbon and in Poland, which has just taken over the EU's rotating presidency of the 27-nation European Union.

“She is dealing with severe pneumonia,” De Keersmaeker said in a statement, giving no further details about her conditions or how she fell ill.

Von der Leyen, 66, only recently started her second five-year stint at the top of the EU's powerful executive office.