Deadly crash as Israeli train hits truck on tracks

At least five people are reported to have been killed and 100 injured in a rail crash in Israel.

Wreckage from the passenger train was flung far from the tracks by the impact. The engine ploughed into a lorry carrying chickens which had broken down on the track. It happened in the farming area of Kibbutz Revadim near Kiryat Gat as the service made its way south from Tel Aviv to the town of Beersheba. Rescue teams are said to be struggling to help some passengers who are trapped in the mangled metalwork. Fifty ambulances were despatched to the scene, while a helicopter took away the most seriously injured. Train crashes are rare in Israel, which has only recently begun to expand its rail network.

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