American Marconi Wireless News - Trains collide outside Jakarta, killing four: officials

There were chaotic scenes at the Bekasi Timur station some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Jakarta, with rescue workers shouting for oxygen tanks as ambulances stood by in a snaking queue, lights flashing.

An AFP reporter at the scene witnessed people being carried out of the wreckage on gurneys and loaded into waiting ambulances as hundreds of bystanders looked on, some seemingly in shock.

Spokeswoman Anne Purba of the state-owned KAI rail company told reporters at least four people had died and more than 30 were hospitalised.

And deputy house speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said the toll could rise.

"Judging from the evacuation process that is still under way, it is possible that the number of victims may continue to rise," he told reporters.

Another KAI spokesman Franoto Wibowo told Kompas TV victims were being evacuated from the wreckage with assistance from the military, fire brigade, the national search and rescue agency and the Red Cross.

- Passengers trapped -

Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri said a long-distance train had crashed into the last, women-only, carriage of a commuter train.

All victims were in the commuter train, and rescuers were working to free people still trapped inside.

The crash caused "significant damage to several train carriages", the Jakarta search and rescue agency said in a statement.

"The incident caused a number of passengers to suffer injuries, and several victims were reported to be trapped inside the carriages due to the force of the impact," it added.

The agency said rescuers were "carrying out the evacuation process for the trapped victims using extrication equipment to free them from the wrecked train structures".

According to Franoto, a taxi had apparently clipped the commuter train on a level crossing, causing it to come to a standstill on the tracks, where it was hit.

"We are still in the process of collecting data and evidence... The detailed chronology of the cause will be delivered later by the authorised authorities," he added.

All 240 people on board the long-distance train had been evacuated safely, according to Purba.

The last major train crash in the Southeast Asian country killed four crew members and injured about two dozen people elsewhere in West Java province in January 2024.

Transport accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation where buses, trains and even planes are often old and poorly maintained.

Sixteen people were killed when a commuter train crashed into a minibus on a level crossing in Jakarta in 2015.

P.Stevenson--AMWN