Monday, June 12, 2006; Posted: 7:11 a.m. EDT (11:11 GMT)
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A passenger train has derailed and overturned in central Israel after hitting a truck, injuring at least 63 people, according to an Israeli ambulance service official.
Officials said 58 people had been evacuated and another five were trapped at the scene in an overturned passenger car.
One woman told Army Radio her trapped husband called her on his cellphone to say he could see other, seriously injured people trapped in the same car.
Of those hurt, six suffered moderate injures with 52 said to have sustained light injuries.
The passenger train, carrying 200 people from Tel Aviv to Haifa, crashed into a car at a rail crossing near the city of Netanya, the official said.
Efforts were made to alert the train to stop, but it struck the truck at high speed, a witness told Channel 2 TV, according to The Associated Press.
Ambulances and medical rescue helicopters were at the scene. Passengers walked along the tracks after the crash, while others used cellphones to call loved ones and transmit images.
A passenger, quoted by the YNet news web site, said: "We overturned and passengers broke windows to get outside."
Seven people were killed in a similar incident when a passenger train hit a truck south of Tel Aviv in June 2005. More than 150 injured.
Unconfirmed reports also said the driver of the train escaped before the crash, and that the truck had tried to cross despite barriers being down.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Associated Press the barrier was down but one witness in a passing car who identified herself only as Miri told Israel Radio the gate was up.
"I'm not sure why (the truck) got stuck, but its two front wheels got caught," she said.
"The driver got out before the crossing gate came down. ... The train just continued steaming ahead with the truck, and the truck was crushed."