A train slammed into an earth-moving machine in northwest Turkey today, killing five passengers and injuring 16 others, AP quoted the transportation minister as saying. Several cars of the train, which was traveling from the capital, Ankara, to Istanbul, derailed near the town of Bilecik, 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Istanbul. The dead were all in the first rail car, which was squashed between the engine and another car, Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters. Yildirim said the machine moved into the path of the train, causing the accident. But Soner Celik, a passenger, told CNN-Turk television that the earth mover was working on a road construction site near the tracks and slid down a hillside, crashing onto to the train. Television footage of the crash site showed rescuers trying to help a man out of a rail car through a window. The man appeared to be attached to his seat. Yildirim said some of the injured were in serious condition. In Turkey's worst train accident in recent years, a newly inaugurated high-speed train from Istanbul to Ankara derailed in 2004, killing 37 people and injuring 95 others.
