Turkey train crash – Seven dead and 46 injured after high speed train crashes and derails in Ankara

SEVEN people have been killed and at least 46 injured after a high speed train crashed at a station in Ankara, Turkey.

Video footage showed emergency workers at the scene, working to rescue people from carriages trapped beneath the mangled metal wreckage.

The accident occurred around 6:30 am, local time, as the train was traveling between Ankara and the central Turkish province of Konya, the broadcaster said.

Two cars of the high-speed train are said to have derailed in the accident at an overpass at the Marsandiz train station, around five miles to the west of the Turkish capital.

The crash is said to have happened after a collision between the high speed and a local train.

Images from the scene show injured people being rescued from the debris.

Governor Vasip Sahin told reporters the crash was caused by the high speed train hitting a locomotive which carries out track inspections.

It was not clear at what speed the trains were travelling when the crash occurred, but it occurred at a station where the Ankara-Konya train does not stop.

An official from the Ankara governor's office initially said the high speed train had collided with a suburban train.

Television footage showed emergency services working to rescue passengers from wrangled cars and debris.

Rescue teams were looking for more survivors, Sahin said. "Our hope is that there are no other victims," he said.

It was not immediately clear if a signalling problem caused the accident. Sahin said a technical investigation has begun.

In July, 10 people were killed and more than 70 injured when most of a passenger train derailed in northwestern Turkey, after torrential rains caused part of the rail tracks to collapse.

Last month, 15 people were injured when a passenger train collided with a freight train in Turkey's central province of Sivas.

Konya, some 160 miles southwest of Ankara, is home to the tomb of the Sufi mystic and poet Jalaladdin Rumi, attracting thousands of pilgrims and tourists.