More than 50 feared dead in Sri Lanka train crash

COLOMBO - More than 50 bus passengers were feared dead and about 40 injured after a train rammed into the vehicle at a level-crossing in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, officials said.

None of the passengers and crew on the crowded morning train were hurt, a railway official said, but it was one of the island's worst rail disasters in years.

"The Colombo-Kandy inter-city express train collided with a commuter bus. We fear close to 60 have died," said a spokeswoman at the police emergency centre in Colombo.

The crash took place around 8:30 a.m. (2.30 GMT) at a level-crossing in Polgahawela town, about 60 km northeast of the capital, she said.

The bus was apparently trying to make its way past the barriers and cross the tracks when it was hit by the train, Gunapala Vitanage, chief train controller in Colombo, said.

Barriers at level-crossings in Sri Lanka stop road traffic on one lane and the opposite lane stays open, allowing many motorists to wind their way around them.

The train was bound for the hill capital Kandy from Colombo while the bus was headed towards Colombo, she said.

"They are still bringing in the injured. There are more than 40 injured in the hospital so far," said Nalika Bandara, a healthcare officer at Kurunegala government hospital near the crash site.

The federal government said it was saddened by the tragedy.

"We have immediately informed services to help the victims, and have sent a team to the location as well to see what can be done," Transport Minister Felix Perera told local television station Sirasa TV. "Right now what we can do is not to think of the train but to think of the lives of the injured passengers and the dead. Now we are concentrating on what can be done to help the victims," he said.

The loss-making, state-run Sri Lanka Railways operates an antiquated network built largely during British colonial rule and has seen little investment since the island gained independence in 1948.

The country's road and rail systems, like most of the rest of its infrastructure, were further neglected during two decades of civil war since the early 1980s when Tamil Tiger rebels launched a revolt for a separate ethnic homeland.

- REUTERS