Two killed in train collision in Pakistan: Officials

LAHORE: At least two people were killed and 17 others wounded, five of them critically, when two trains collided in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, officials said.

"Passenger train Khyber mail, which was coming from Karachi, hit another Lahore-bound train, which had stopped at a local station in Lahore, killing two people and wounding 17 others," railway police official Munir Chishti said.

He said the second train had made an unscheduled stop at the station after hitting a young boy. Five of the wounded are in a critical condition, he added.

"We have already ordered an inquiry into the incident", Chishti said.

Another railway police official, Hassan Jaffery, confirmed the incident and casualties.

Pakistan suffered its worst train disaster in more than a decade in 2005 when three trains ploughed into each other in Sindh province, killing around 150 people. More than 350 people were killed in a 1990 train crash.

Train travel is popular among Pakistan's poorer classes, but the railways have been hit by a severe funding shortfall and a lack of barriers at most level crossings are a frequent cause of small accidents.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011