Many dead in Hungary crash

Metal from the bus was wrapped around the locomotive

At least 33 people on a German tourist coach have been killed in a collision with a train in central Hungary.

The train is said to have ploughed into the bus as it was crossing a railway line near Siofok on the shores of Lake Balaton, one of the country's main tourist attractions.

"The train, which was going full speed, practically sliced the bus in two and flattened one half, pushing it around 200 metres down the track," an emergency services chief, Gyorgy Heizler, told a news conference.

There was an enormous crashing sound when the train hit the bus and I saw parts of the bus flying into the air

Eyewitness Istvan Galos

Pictures from the crash scene

Ambulances and helicopters took the injured to nearby hospitals.

However, most of the bus's passengers died.

Reports from Siofok said 29 people had died at the scene, and four people had died in hospital. Six were still undergoing treatment, some for serious injuries.

Eyewitnesses said bodies were still strewn around the crossing hours after the crash, some of them unrecognisable.

Lights ignored

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy visited the scene of the crash, describing it as "maybe the most horrific bus accident in Hungary's history".

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder expressed his "deeply felt condolences" to the families of the dead and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

The bus was hit by the Budapest to Nagykanizsa passenger train, travelling at 100 kilometres per hour, just after 0830 local time (0630GMT), a police spokesman said.

Hungarian railway authorities and eyewitnesses said the bus had ignored warning lights.

Engineer Istvan Galos said two German buses were travelling together.

The first crossed the tracks as the warning lights were flashing white, he said, but they were already flashing red as the second bus crossed.

"There was an enormous crashing sound when the train hit the bus and I saw parts of the bus flying into the air," he added.

The train was derailed and the driver was injured.

The bus was carrying passengers from northern and central Germany

The crash left mounds of twisted steel barely recognisable as a vehicle, including metal wrapped around the front of the locomotive.

The bus was chartered from a firm near Bielefeld by a travel operator in Cloppenburg, northern Germany.

Reports said it was carrying tourists, most of them pensioners, from the northern and central states of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.

German police said 46 people had been signed up for the holiday, but some of them may not have gone on Thursday's excursion.

They were thought to be staying in Siofok, which is 100 km south-west of the capital Budapest.

No barriers

The German embassy set up a crisis centre, and ambassador Wilfried Gruber travelled to the scene.

The BBC's Ray Furlong in Berlin says the crash will add to the on-going debate in Hungary about adding barriers to rail crossings - there are currently only lights in many places.

Mr Medgyessy said his government would now look at improving safety.

Last July, 19 Poles were killed and 32 injured when a bus taking them on a pilgrimage to Bosnia ploughed into a roundabout and overturned on a different stretch of the same road.

But there has also been a whole series of accidents involving German tour groups across Europe in recent years, our correspondent says, so for many people here this latest incident will have a depressingly familiar ring to it.