Tunisia train collision leaves dozens injured

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  Police inspect damage to one of the trains that collided in the Jbel Jelloud area in the south of Tunisia's capital Tunis. All photos: AFP

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  At least 95 people were injured in the collision which took place early on Monday, emergency services said.

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  Only one of the trains was carrying passengers.

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  Most of the injured were suffering from fractures and bruises, none of them life-threatening.

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  About 15 ambulances had been dispatched to treat the wounded or take them to hospital.

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  This picture taken on March 21, 2022 shows a view of the scene of a train collision in the Jbel Jelloud area in the south of Tunisia's capital Tunis. - A collision between two passenger trains early on March 21 injured 95 people in the south of the Tunisian capital, emergency services said. The cause was not immediately clear. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)

At least 65 people were injured in a collision between two trains in the Tunisian capital, officials confirmed on Monday.

"The injured were taken to hospitals and there were no deaths," civil defence spokesman Moez Triaa told AFP. He said one train contained passengers while the other was empty.

Most of the injured were suffering from fractures, none of them life-threatening, Mr Triaa said.

The accident happened at 9.30am local time in the Jbel Jelloud area of southern Tunis.

The cause was not immediately clear.

Several deadly crashes have taken place on Tunisia's ageing railway system in recent years.

At least five people were killed and more than 50 injured in late 2016 when a train slammed into a public bus before dawn near the site of Monday's crash.

The previous year, the North African country experienced one of its worst railway disasters, with 18 people killed when a train hit a lorry and derailed at a level crossing south of the capital after a signal failure.