More than 50 bus passengers were killed and about 40 injured after a train rammed into the vehicle at a level-crossing in Sri Lanka today.
None of the passengers and crew on the crowded morning train were hurt, a railway official said, but it was one of the island's worst rail disasters in years.
The crash took place at a level-crossing in Polgahawela town, about 40 miles northeast of the capital.
The bus was apparently trying to make its way past the barriers and cross the tracks when it was hit by the train. Barriers at level-crossings in Sri Lanka stop road traffic on one lane and the opposite lane stays open, allowing many motorists to wind their way around them.
The driver and conductor of the bus were among the survivors. The driver had apparently broken an ankle and refused to speak. Police said the two men had been arrested and were being guarded from angry survivors and relatives.
The train was bound for the hill capital Kandy from Colombo while the bus was headed toward Colombo.
The loss-making, state-run Sri Lanka Railways operates an antiquated network built largely during British colonial rule and has seen little investment since the island gained independence in 1948.
The country's road and rail systems, like most of the rest of its infrastructure, were further neglected during two decades of civil war since the early 1980s when Tamil Tiger rebels launched a revolt for a separate ethnic homeland.