Islamabad - A passenger train collided Tuesday with a freight train in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, killing nine people and injuring 40, officials said. The crash occurred near the Juma Goth railway station on the city's outskirts. Negligence on the part of the driver of the Karachi-bound Allama Iqbal Express was blamed.
"The driver did not follow the red signal and slammed into the parcel train," said Aftab Ahmad Memon, chief railway official in the region.
Nearly all those killed and injured were in the carriage directly behind the locomotive, which took brunt of the impact. Two women and an infant were among the dead.
"Most of the injured have suffered simple fractures, cuts and bruises," Seemi Jamali of Jinnah Hospital told the Geo News television channel.
Television footage showed grieving relatives at the accident site as rescuers removed bodies and injured by cutting through the wreck.
In July 2005, more than 125 people died and hundreds suffered injuries when three trains ploughed into each other in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital. Authorities also blamed one of the drivers for that crash.
