A packed passenger train slammed into a stationary train also loaded with travellers in Indonesia's Central Java province early on Tuesday, killing at least 27 people and seriously injuring dozens, officials said.
A local police official said the accident happened near the town of Brebes around 4:00 a.m. (2100 GMT Monday).
"The latest count so far is 27 dead," an official at Brebes public hospital who gave her name as Nur told Reuters.
"The number will increase because rescue efforts are still taking place," she said, adding dozens were seriously injured.
Indonesia's Metro TV, which had a reporter on the scene, earlier said 41 had died. It later revised its toll to 27.
The police officer said the moving train was travelling at high speed when it crashed into the stationary train at a small station just outside Brebes, 280 km (175 miles) east of Jakarta.
"We are not sure how many have died but it could be a lot," the police official told Reuters by telephone from Brebes.
He said both trains were packed with passengers.
No further details on the crash were immediately available. Indonesia does not have an extensive rail network, and most services are centred on densely-populated Java island. However, accidents occur periodically.
Last September 40 people were killed when two trains collided in the West Java town of Cirebon, not far from Brebes.
(China Daily December 25, 2001)
