At8k8 777 least 5 killed in train-bus collision in Slovakia

BRATISLAVA -- At least five people died and five others were injured as a train collided with a bus in Slovakia on Thursday, the Slovak Emergency Medical Rescue Service Operational Centre said.

The accident occurred at a railway crossing near the town of Nove Zamky in Southern Slovakia. Five ambulances and two helicopters have been despatched to the accident site.

An express train carrying more than 100 passengers from Prague to Budapest crashed into a bus shortly after 5 pm local time. The collision caused a fire on the scene, interrupting traffic on the track.

The locomotive and engineer of the passenger train belonged to the Czech Railways while the train set and personnel belonged to the Slovak Railways. There were nine people, including a driver, on the bus.

Slovak Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok is heading to the crash site.

"Even during the ongoing EU summit in Brussels, it is with profound grief that I've been following sad news from my homeland about the tragic crash of a train and a bus near Nove Zamky," posted Slovak President Peter Pellegrini on social media.