A train crashed into a double-decker bus at a rail crossing in Argentina early yesterday, killing 17 people and injuring about 65.
The crash happened just after 2.30am about 130 miles (205km) south of the capital Buenos Aires.
Several witnesses said the bus driver drove through the crossing's lowered safety barriers and ignored stop signs, the Clarinnewspaper reported. Others said the train sounded its horn in warning but that the bus failed to stop.
"It seems the driver of the bus passed when the barrier was down, and the train cut the bus in half. . . . It was inconceivably imprudent," Daniel Scioli, the provincial governor, said.
Television pictures showed the train partially derailed, with the wreckage of the bus lying alongside, torn in half.
The train had been on its way from the capital to the seaside resort town of Mar del Plata, while the bus was returning from the Atlantic coast. Some of the victims were coming back from holidays.
The drivers of the train and the bus survived the crash and are being held for questioning.