MERSIN, Turkey
At least nine people have died and five others wounded, three critically, after a passenger train collided early Thursday with a minibus in Turkey's southern Mersin province.
Mersin Police Chief Hasan Huseyin Bahar and Governor Hasan Basri Guzeloglu told reporters that the train was on its usual course between Mersin-Tarsus when it crashed into the minibus.
Governor Guzeloglu added that a judicial and administrative investigation would be launched into the accident.
A correspondent for Anadolu Agency at the scene reported that the minibus, which was carrying employees of a plant in the Tarsus-Mersin Organized Industrial Zone, broke into two in the collision.
Relatives of the casualties have claimed that the guard fence at the level crossing was open while the train was passing.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
