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Poland mourns crash victims

March 5, 2012

Poland has begun two days of national mourning in honor of the victims of a head-on train collision over the weekend. Investigators are still trying to determine how the trains ended up on the same track.

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Polish emergency services work at the site of a train crash
Image: Reuters

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski ordered the period of national mourning after at least 16 people were killed in the country's most deadly train accident in 20 years. Flags were ordered to be flown at half mast and all cultural and sporting events cancelled on Monday and Tuesday.

One of the trains was travelling to Warsaw and the other to Krakow when they crashed into each other on Saturday around 9 p.m. just north of Krakow in southern Poland. Around 350 people were on board, of which 58 were injured, some of them seriously.

Investigators are examining whether the crash was due to human error, a technical glitch or a problem with modernizing the railway system.

The probe could take months, Transport Minister Slawomir Nowak said.

He stressed though that it was not a matter of the technical condition of the tracks or of the trains. Train travel in Poland is safe, he said, adding that the government makes safety a priority.

Poland has been working to upgrade its railway system in recent years.

Rescue workers continued to search the wreckage of mangled carriages on Monday to make sure that all of the dead had been recovered. A US woman was among the 16 killed.

Rescue continues after deadly Polish crash

ncy/pfd (dpa, AP)