In Hasselt, about 600 meters from the level crossing in Veldstraat, a collision occurred between four freight wagons and a passenger train around 5.20 pm on Saturday afternoon. This has been heard from the railway infrastructure manager Infrabel.
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For some unknown reason, the freight wagons had come loose on an Infrabel site and ended up on a track in service. The signal box in Hasselt sent out an alarm, and the driver of the train en route from Blankenberge to Hasselt applied an emergency brake and came to a stop, said Dimitri Temmerman, spokesman for the NMBS. This was followed by a collision at low speed. There were no injuries, only light damage.
There were about 150 travelers on board the train. They were evacuated with a replacement bus. Replacement buses also ran between Hasselt and Diest, because train traffic was interrupted on the route. In the meantime, trains can again run on one track.
“All safety procedures worked perfectly,” says Thomas Baeken, spokesman for Infrabel.
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