ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) – A freight train hit a stationary passenger train in central Tanzania Sunday, killing at least 15 people, a government official said.
William Lukuvi, the regional commissioner of Dodoma town where the crash occurred, said the accident happened around midday Sunday.
“We are investigating the cause of the accident, which has already claimed at least 15 lives,” Lukuvi said by phone. “Cranes have been ordered to help separate the crumpled wreckage and retrieve bodies.”
The death toll may rise, he said. The line was closed and an investigation was under way.
Tanzania’s worst train accident was in 2002, when more than 200 people were killed and hundreds wounded just outside Dodoma after a passenger train’s engine failed. It rolled back downhill and collided with a moving freight train, derailing all but one of the carriages.
Most of Africa’s railways date back to colonial days and they are often poorly maintained.
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