At least ten people have been reported killed in a train crash in southern Italy.
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Coroner Franco Introna told the ANSA news agency that 22 bodies were at the morgue, with a 23rd expected to arrive later from Andria.
The collision happened on a bend in the track in open countryside and flung the front carriages of both trains into olive groves bordering the line, slinging bits of metal from the wreckage.
A local prosecutor in nearby Trani said it was too early to speculate on the cause, although human error was likely to have been a factor.
The last major rail disaster in Italy was in 2009 when a freight train derailed in Viareggio, in the centre of the country, with more than 30 people living close to the tracks killed in the subsequent fire.
A local blood bank, Avis Corato, posted on social media to urge people with O Positive blood to donate at Andria Hospital following the train tragedy.
Rescuers set up a field hospital at the scene.
ANSA said ambulances and fire trucks were reaching the scene.
“I don’t know what happened, it all happened so quickly, I don’t know”, she told The Associated Press.
“Unfortunately the death toll has risen to 20”, said Mr Giuseppe Corrado, the deputy head of the local province.
“It looks like there has been a plane crash”, said the mayor of Corato, Massimo Mazzilli.
Italian premier Matteo Renzi pledged a thorough investigation and returned to Rome from Milan to monitor the situation.
At least two passengers were pulled alive from the crumpled wreckage as the rescue operation took place in the scorching heat.
Simultaneously, it is peculiar that a crash of such a nature with the body-count it caused would yield no images of the bodies but only of the wreckage.
April 1978: Two trains collide near a ravine next to Murazze Vado.
He said Granziano Del Rio, Italy’s minister for infrastructure and transport, is heading to the crash site with the head of civil protection.
No immediate reason was given for the crash, which may have been triggered by a technical failure or by the error of one of the train drivers who may have not observed a stop sign, according to first speculations.
The emergency services have been trying to free passengers from the shattered carriages, near the town of Andria.
Numerous passengers on one of the trains were students heading to lessons at the University of Bari or travellers on their way to Bari global airport.
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The stretch of track is operated by a regional rail company Ferrotramviaria. It wasn’t yet known how many passengers the trains were carrying.
