At least four dead, 70 hurt in Turkish train crash

Two trains including an inter-city express crashed head-on in western Turkey yesterday, killing at least four people and injuring 70 more, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said.

The trains ploughed into each other in the late afternoon near Tavsancil in northwestern Turkey, around 60 kilometres from Istanbul and not far from the spot where 39 people died last month when a new, super express train came off the rails.

There was conflicting information on the toll. Salih Gun, a local member of parliament, told Reuters nine people had been killed. Mr Yildirim said it was not clear if there were more corpses inside the wreckage.

"Four passengers have died and around 70 were injured and taken to hospitals, which are still treating 22 injured passengers," Mr Yildirim told a news conference in the town of Gebze near the crash site.

"After the rescue work it will become clear if there are more dead in the damaged carriages," he said.

Police, troops and ambulance workers clambered over crumpled carriages and used power tools to try to free survivors. Some passengers sat by the track holding bandages to head wounds.

Military police earlier put the death toll at six and said 100 people were injured.

One of the trains was an express from Ankara to Istanbul and the other was travelling from Istanbul to the town of Adapazari.