Head-on collision of Bangladesh trains kills 16, injures 40

• A train heading for the southern port city of Chittagong and one bound for Dhaka collided in Brahmanbaria.
• It was not immediately clear how the two trains came to be on the same track, and the government has ordered an investigation.

(Bangladesh) Rescuers in Bangladesh were struggling on Tuesday to pull passengers from mangled wreckage after a head-on collision of two trains killed at least 16 people and injured more than 40, officials said.

A train heading for the southern port city of Chittagong and one bound for Dhaka collided at around 3 a.m. (2100 GMT) in Brahmanbaria, about 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital, crumpling three compartments of the southbound train.

"When I came out of the train, I saw dead bodies without heads, without legs, without hands," Mohammad Moslem, 50, who was among the passengers, many of them asleep at the time, told Reuters by telephone.

It was not immediately clear how the two trains came to be on the same track, and the government has ordered an investigation.

Railway accidents in Bangladesh happen relatively frequently, many at unsupervised crossings, and also because of the poor condition of tracks