Train and Land Rover collide

A train has collided with a Land Rover on a level crossing in East Sussex.

Nobody was injured in the crash, but the driver of the Land Rover was treated for shock, firefighters said.

His vehicle, which was wrecked in the collision, collided with a two-carriage train near Winchelsea at about 1600 BST on Friday.

British Transport Police said that "luckily" there were no casualties due to the low speed of the collision.

Officers said the level crossing was not protected by barriers, but did have warning lights, which would have been flashing when the Land Rover was driven across the railway line.

Train 'clipped' vehicle

Transport police said the driver told them the sun had been in his eyes.

They said the train, which was travelling from Ashford in Kent to Hastings, had clipped the rear of the vehicle.

The wreckage of the Land Rover had been removed by Friday evening, but people at the scene said it must have been dragged quite some distance because it had damaged a garden wall some way from the crossing.

Passengers were taken to Hastings by bus to complete their journey.

Witnesses said there had been about 30 people on board, most of whom were children.

A spokesman for South Central Trains, which runs the Ashford to Hastings line, said the line would be closed until later on Friday evening.

He said the impact of the incident on other services in the area would be small because the line only has an hourly service.

The crossing is about 15 miles from Dymchurch, where a train driver on a miniature railway was killed earlier this month when a car passed through a level crossing without barriers and collided with the train.