At Least 32 Killed in Hungary Bus Crash

At least 32 German tourists were killed today when their double-decker coach was sliced in half by a train in central Hungary.

The coach was hit by the Budapest to Nagykanizsa train just after 8.30am (0635 GMT) as it crossed a railway line near Siofok, on the shores of Lake Balaton, about 63 miles south-west of Budapest.

The train cut the vehicle in two, dragging one of the sections about 150 metres along the tracks. "The scene is just horrible," a local police spokesman said.

Though the exact cause of the accident was not immediately clear, eyewitnesses said that the crossing signal had been on red when the bus started moving across the tracks.

Thirty people died at the scene, one died while being transported to a hospital by helicopter and the 32nd victim died at a hospital, according to Siofok's police chief, Captain Tamas Hekker. One of the two bus crash survivors in intensive care at hospital had also died, raising the number of victims to 33.

Eyewitness Istvan Galos said he had seen the bus cross the track while the warning lights were red. "The train blew its whistle twice to warn the bus, but the train was not able to stop in time," he said.

The 39-year-old engineer added that two tour buses with German license plates were travelling together. The first bus had crossed the tracks while the warning lights were flashing white, but the second crossed as the lights were already flashing red.

The crossing was unguarded and only a flashing light served as a warning of oncoming trains, with no gates or barriers, which are rare at Hungarian railway crossings.

Vilmos Olah, a doctor at Siofok General Hospital, said a similar crash between a bus and a train had occurred at the same crossing in 1980, when 24 Hungarian were killed. He said: "I don't know how many people will have to die before they put a proper crossing there." Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman for the National Rescue Service, said that it was too early to give any more details about where in Germany the bus was from or what it had been heading. "The wreckage is too deformed," he said.

Tibor Pal, the state secretary at the interior ministry, said that the bus had been carrying 38 passengers. Its driver was among the dead, while the train's conductor was injured, he added.

The Hungarian prime minister, Peter Medgyessy, described it as "one of the all-time worst traffic accidents" in Hungary. He said he had called German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder to express his condolences.

Christian Resing, spokesman for the German embassy in Budapest, said that a crisis centre was being set up and that the ambassador was on his way to the crash scene.

"At the moment, we don't have any information on the victims," he said. "We have a crisis centre here at the embassy, and we are in contact with our foreign ministry in Berlin, the Hungarian authorities, police and the foreign ministry."

The crash is one of the worst to have happened in Hungary in recent decades. Last July, 19 Poles were killed and 32 injured when a bus taking them on a pilgrimage to Bosnia ploughed into a roundabout and overturned.

Lake Balaton, which is central Europe's largest freshwater lake, is one of Hungary's most popular holiday areas and a major wine-producing region. It draws large numbers of tourists every year, and is especially popular with German holidaymakers.