20 killed in head on train crash

Twenty people were killed when two commuter trains collided head-on during morning rush-hour today, officials in Belgium said.

Dirk Pieters, the mayor of Buizingen, a town outside Brussels, said "the most recent information we have is that 20 people died".

He said he had received the reports from emergency officials on the scene south-west of Brussels.

The trains collided in snowy conditions in the commuter town at about 8.30am(0730 GMT).

Kristien Berckmans, a Belgian railways spokeswoman, said "there was considerable damage and several people were injured".

There was no immediate information on the cause of the crash.