Two trains collide near Bedford in England

Emergency crews rushed to a railway line north of London on Friday after two trains collided near Bedford, prompting service suspensions and reports of passenger injuries that authorities had not yet detailed.

British Transport Police said it was responding to reports of a collision involving two trains in the Bedford area, a market town about 56 miles, or 90 kilometers, north of the capital.

“We’re responding to reports of a collision involving two trains in the Bedford area,” the force said on X.

East Midlands Railway, which operated the train, said emergency services were dealing with “an incident between London St Pancras and Leicester.” The operator later said it could not run services in or out of London for the rest of the day and advised customers not to travel on Friday evening.

Unverified footage posted on social media appeared to show two East Midlands Railway trains on the tracks after one had run into the other. Images showed damaged rail carriages and passengers standing beside the trains. The trains appeared to have remained upright, according to video posted by the BBC.

Emergency services did not immediately provide details on injuries. British media outlets, including The Daily Telegraph and TalkTV, reported that passengers had been injured. Passenger Peter Knapp told the BBC that he saw “bloodied faces” and passengers who appeared to have broken legs. He said he had injured his back.

“I felt like I’d been in a bomb explosion,” Knapp told the BBC. He said there was “smoke everywhere” inside the train carriages and added that he could not “imagine what the situation of the driver is.”

The East of England Ambulance Service said it had sent “a number of resources” to what it described as a “major incident on the railway south of Bedford.” Those resources included an air ambulance and a hazardous area response team. The ambulance service urged people to avoid the area.

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said its crews were attending an incident on the railway just south of Bedford and also called on the public to stay away.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on X that she was “deeply concerned” by reports of the collision.

The disruption affected a key route serving London. Thameslink, another rail operator in the region, said all lines were blocked between Luton and Bedford “due to a problem under investigation.” East Midlands Railway said trains to and from London St Pancras had been suspended.

Train collisions are relatively rare in Britain. In September 2023, several people were injured after two trains collided at Aviemore railway station in the Highlands of Scotland. That crash occurred on the Strathspey Railway, a heritage railway separate from mass-transit public services, and involved a stationary carriage and another train in the station. One of the trains was the Flying Scotsman, the century-old steam locomotive that the National Railway Museum has described as the first steam train to exceed 100 miles an hour.

In August 2020, an early morning service from Aberdeen to Glasgow derailed near Stonehaven in northeast Scotland after a landslip caused by heavy rain. The driver, a conductor and a passenger were killed, and six other people were injured. Network Rail, an arm of the U.K. Department for Transport, pleaded guilty in 2023 to safety failings in that case and was fined $8.4 million.