16 Killed as Special Holiday Train Jumps Tracks in S. Africa
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — A special Easter weekend passenger train jumped the tracks near Pretoria on Friday, and at least 16 black passengers were killed, authorities said.
Three locomotives and five passenger cars derailed at 10:45 a.m. about six miles north of Pretoria, the railway police department said in a statement. The police said the cause of the accident is unknown.
Fourteen people were reported dead at the scene. A spokeswoman for the South African Transport Services said two more people died later in a hospital. She said 30 people were injured, but railway police put the number at more than 40.
The train, packed with black travelers from the Johannesburg and Pretoria areas, was heading to Pietersburg in the northern Transvaal.
Both Friday and Monday are holidays in South Africa, and hundreds of thousands of blacks travel from urban centers to their traditional homes in rural areas.
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