British Transport Police said on Friday they were responding to reports of a train collision in north London, and emergency services said they were attending to the incident amid media reports of injuries.
“We are responding to reports of a collision between two trains in the Bedford area,” transport police said in X, referring to the market town 56 kilometers north of England’s capital.
East Midlands Railway, which operated the train, said “emergency services are dealing with an incident between London St Pancras and Leicester.”
Unverified footage on social media appeared to show two East Midlands Railway trains colliding, one running into the other, with passengers standing on the tracks alongside the damaged trains. The trains were seen stopped on the tracks, according to video posted by CBS News partner BBC News.
There have been local media reports of injuries, but emergency services have not released details. Passenger Peter Knapp told the BBC he saw “faces covered in blood” and passengers who appeared to have broken legs. He hurt his back, he said.
“I felt like a bomb went off,” Knapp told the BBC. He said there was “smoke everywhere” in the train carriages and said he could not “imagine the condition of the (train) driver.”
The East of England Ambulance Service said on social media that it had sent “a number of services,” including an air ambulance and an emergency response team, to a “major rail incident south of Bedford.”
Meanwhile, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said “crews are currently attending an incident on the railway south of Bedford.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “deeply concerned” by the reports of the collision.
Train operator Thameslink, which also operates in the region, said on its X account that “all lines are closed between Luton and Bedford… due to the problem being investigated.” East Midlands Railway said trains to and from London St. Pancras has been suspended, customers advised not to go out in the evening.
Train collisions are not uncommon in Britain.
In September 2023, several people were injured after two trains collided at Aviemore railway station in the Highlands of Scotland. The accident happened on the Strathspey Railway, which is a heritage railway that runs separately from public passenger services, and involved a stationary carriage and another train at the station. One of the trains involved was the historic Flying Scotsman, a century old, the first train to reach more than 100 miles per hour, the National Railway Museum said.
In August 2020, a morning service from Aberdeen to Glasgow derailed, killing three people near the town of Stonehaven, in north-east Scotland, after a landslide caused by heavy rain. The train driver, conductor and passenger died. Six other people were injured.
Network Rail – an arm of the UK’s Department for Transport – pleaded guilty in 2023 to safety failings in court proceedings and the public body was fined $8.4 million.
