SIX PEOPLE KILLED IN TRAIN-MINIBUS COLLISION

MOSCOW, OCTOBER 24 /SRNA/ - Six people were killed, and one was injured in a collision between a train and a minibus in the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia’s Far East, the RIA news agency reported, citing local railway authorities.

The agency said the minibus was crossing the tracks at a railway crossing when it was hit by a train.

The Interfax news agency reported that the accident occurred today at around 1 p.m. Moscow time near the settlement of Dezhnyovka.

There were seven people in the minibus. Six were killed, and one was hospitalized in serious condition. The train’s passengers and crew were not injured.

According to the local railway administration, the minibus driver failed to stop at a stop sign before passenger train No. 35 traveling on the Khabarovsk–Blagoveshchensk route.

"The train driver applied the brakes sharply, but there was not enough distance to avoid the collision," the railway administration said.

The Jewish Autonomous Region is a federal subject of the Russian Federation with the status of an autonomous region, located in the Far Eastern Federal District in the Asian part of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Birobidzhan.