27 dead as train hits bus in Pakistan

A train slammed into a bus in central Pakistan today, killing 27 people and injuring six, police said.

The accident happened in Malikwal town, Punjab province, as the bus was trying to cross the railway tracks, local police chief Mr Waqar Haider said. All the victims were on the bus. Three children and 24 men died.

Haider said the railway crossing did not have a gate or lights to warn vehicles of oncoming trains.

The wounded have been taken from the site of the crash to hospitals in the nearby town of Mandi Bhawaldin, he said.

The train was travelling between the towns of Lalamusa and Surghuda, Mr Haider said.

Malikwal is about 250 miles north-east of Multan, a main city in Punjab.

AFP