UPDATED ON:
Monday, December 24, 2007
17:53 Mecca time, 14:53 GMT
News Middle East
Children die in Iraq train crash

Police are searching for the train driver who fled the scene of the collision

A cargo train has ploughed into a minivan stuck on a level crossing in central Iraq, killing 13 members of a family including 11 children.
 
The minivan is thought to have broken down on the crossing north of Hilla, in the Babil governorate, when the train travelling to Baghdad from Basra hit it.
 
The train driver fled the scene.
A policeman said on Monday that the 13 casualties were from the family of Hamid Hrat, including six boys and five girls.
 
"It appears that the Opel car in which the family was travelling broke down at the level crossing and the train coming from Basra to Baghdad crashed into it," he said.
'Gruesome accident'
 
Laith al-Massudi at the hospital in Hilla said: "It was a gruesome accident. The body parts of the dead were brought to the hospital yesterday. All the 13 members were killed instantly."
 
Police are searching for the train driver.
 
Iraq's 2,300km operational rail network has been reduced by more than half since economic sanctions from 1991 Gulf war and the 2003 invasion by US-led forces.
 Source: Agencies
 
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