Two killed and 34 injured in train accident in Tunisia

State rail company says driver and passenger were killed

A derailed train near Msaken in eastern Tunisia on Wednesday after two people were killed and 34 injured. AFP

At least two people were killed and 34 others injured when a train veered off tracks and overturned in Tunisia on Wednesday, the country's national railway company SNCFT said on Wednesday.

The train on the line between Gabes and the capital Tunis derailed shortly after midnight near Msaken, a town about 150 kilometres from the capital, the company said in a statement.

The driver and a passenger were killed while 34 other passengers were injured, it added.

"An investigation has been launched to clarify the circumstances and causes of the accident and to determine who was responsible," it added.

Earlier in the day, state Radio Tunisienne reported, citing a hospital official, that the two people who died were the driver and his assistant.

Several fatal crashes have occurred on Tunisia's ageing railway system in recent years.

In March 2022, at least 65 people were injured in a collision between two trains in the Tunisian capital.

At least five people were killed and more than 50 injured in late 2016 when a train crashed into a public bus before dawn near the site of Monday's crash.

The previous year, the North African country suffered one of its worst railway disasters – 18 people were killed when a train hit a lorry and derailed at a level crossing south of the capital after a signal failure.