Passengers aboard the two commuter trains that crashed head-on outside Brussels described scenes of severe damage.
"I saw well, carnage. It was two trains that had hit each other. One had gone over the top of the other one," said one English survivor.
The collision took place during rush hour on a busy European commuter route. Officials say one of the trains appears to have run a red light. The impact tore the metal siding of some of the train's cars and caused massive damage to surrounding power lines.
"The people who were in front of me, almost all of them died. They were crushed," this man said. "I was lucky, god saved me," said a French survivor.
At least twelve passengers were killed and more than 50 wounded. Emergency teams rushed victims to safety: some received care in a nearby sports center.
Soon after the crash, eyewitness accounts over Twitter described a harrowing scene. Reports are it happened so quickly many passengers don't recall their train breaking at all.
Belgian National Railways has a strong safety record - the last fatal accident occurred in 2001. For now, service in and out of Brussels has been suspended.
