Nine people were killed and 18 others injured on Wednesday as a passenger train crashed into a vehicle carrying workers in the southern Turkish province of Mersin, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The report said the train was en route from another southern province of Adana to Mersin when it collided with a lorry in Tarsus town in Mersin.

Nine people died at the spot and the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment, the report added.

Hasan Tahsin Koprulu, regional director of the Directorate General of State Railways, was quoted as saying that the passenger train did not derail in the crash and that the railway was not shut down.

"If underground tunnels and overpasses are not constructed and authorities do not take necessary precautions, it is impossible to avert such accidents," added Koprulu.

On July 22, 2004, a express train left Turkey's largest city of Istanbul derailed near a town on halfway to the capital Ankara, leaving 37 people dead and 81 others injured.

The worst train accident in Turkey occurred in 1957 when two passenger trains collided head-on, killing 95 people and injuring 150 others.

Source: Xinhua