LONDON (AP) — Nine people were in critical condition on Saturday after a collision between two passenger trains in central England the night before killed the driver of one of the locomotives, police said.
British Transport Police Chief Constable Lucy D'Orsi said more than 80 people were treated in hospitals after the crash late Friday afternoon, and 28 remained hospitalized a day later.
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Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
A train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, Saturday June 20, 2026, after two trains traveling south to London St. Pancras station collided outside the town of Bedford on Friday (Chris Radburn/PA via AP)
Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Buckingham Palace said King Charles III “is greatly saddened” by the crash. It said “his thoughts and sympathies are with the family of the deceased and with all those injured or affected by such a tragic incident."
Police and accident investigators are working to understand why a commuter train bound for London’s St. Pancras Station slammed into the back of another train headed for the same destination on Friday afternoon.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed dozens of people, some with bandages but also many who appeared uninjured, standing and sitting among emergency vehicles parked on a road parallel to the train tracks.
Peter Knapp, one of the passengers, described being thrown forward by the impact, then seeing fellow travelers with broken bones and bloody injuries.
“People were crying, screaming. People were so scared and confused,” he said. “I got up and I saw a lot of people who were unable to speak, had broken legs.”
Another passenger, Brett Byatt, told the BBC that only “three to four of us were uninjured in a full carriage.
“Everyone else had either a serious wound that was bleeding profusely, or a situation where they couldn’t stand, or couldn’t move their neck, or I saw a woman’s snapped leg,” he said.
In recent years Britain’s railways have had one of the world’s best safety records. One passenger was killed in a collision between two trains in Wales in October 2024. That was Britain’s first fatal crash involving multiple trains for more than a quarter of a century.
Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
A train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, Saturday June 20, 2026, after two trains traveling south to London St. Pancras station collided outside the town of Bedford on Friday (Chris Radburn/PA via AP)
Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Emergency personnel work on a train on the tracks outside Bedford, England, after a train from Corby to London St. Pancras and another from Nottingham to London St. Pancras, collided on Friday June 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran dealt two quick blows to the interim agreement with the United States on Saturday, angered by Israel's continued attacks in Lebanon, saying it had closed the Strait of Hormuz again and announcing that while its negotiators are going to Switzerland for talks, not much is likely to happen there.
First, Iran’s joint military command said the strait had been closed, citing Israeli attacks and U.S. “bad faith” and “its clear breach of its commitments” by failing to end the war.
The statement on state television warned that “if the aggression continues, subsequent steps have been planned.”
Minutes later, the state broadcaster said the country’s negotiating team was heading to Switzerland, a trip that was originally planned for Friday but was canceled.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Bagahei, Bagahei, however, signaled that little might happen until Iran feels the U.S. is living up to the deal.
“This trip is therefore about demanding that the other side fulfill its obligations,” he said, adding that negotiations toward a final agreement will begin only once key commitments, including an end to fighting in Lebanon, are upheld.
“If any part of these understandings, any part of these commitments, is not implemented, then the memorandum of understanding as a whole will be jeopardized,” Bagahei said.
Ships had begun transiting the strait after the interim U.S.-Iran agreement was signed earlier in the week.
Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 16 people, including two children, hours after reports emerged of a ceasefire agreement. The persistent fighting threatened an interim agreement between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East.
Seven people remained trapped under the rubble after the strikes hit the southern town of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
Mediators were scrambling to halt the fighting between Israel and the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group, after a heavy exchange on Friday killed at least 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers.
An Israeli military official said Hezbollah had fired more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon overnight, prompting the military to start targeting the militant group there. The official spoke anonymously in line with regulations. The army said it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets and militants in southern Lebanon, including rocket-launching positions and Hezbollah command centers.
On Friday, Israeli ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said on X that Israel “remains firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire” if Hezbollah honors the agreement and ceases hostilities.
On Saturday, Hezbollah said it had committed to the ceasefire but blamed Israel for violating it several times on Friday night. A statement issued by the group's military wing said it would abide by the ceasefire but would also repel attacks by Israeli troops.
Hezbollah and Israel went to war just days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.
The interim U.S.-Iran agreement signed this week has already reopened the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had closed as the war unfolded — cutting off the global economy from significant supplies of oil and natural gas. The deal also envisages the relaunch of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, a core issue in the war.
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are signatories to the deal, which calls for a halt to military operations in Lebanon and for the country's sovereignty to be respected. With the fighting continuing, the accord is under threat and U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland, planned to start Friday, have been delayed, with no new date announced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep Israeli forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon, which Iran says is also a condition of the deal.
A new round of U.S.-backed talks between the Lebanese government and Israel is expected to take place in Washington next week.
A strike on the village of Barish killed four members of a family, parents and two children. In Arab Salim village, a body was pulled from a destroyed house, and in the villages of Doueir and Kfar Rumman, drone strikes killed a person on a motorcycle and a Lebanese soldier. Nine people were killed in strikes in the villages of Qannarit, Sohmor and Shehour.
Plumes of smoke rose into the sky over southern Lebanon and Israeli jets flew low over the coastal city of Tyre on Saturday. Residents there told The Associated Press they were relieved that Tyre had been spared in recent days but the sounds of Israeli planes reminded them the war is not over.
Many doubted a ceasefire — even if agreed on — would hold.
“Our entire lives would change if there’s a ceasefire,” said Hussein Khoshman, a Tyre resident.
Netanyahu's office did not immediately comment on the ceasefire efforts. On Friday, Netanyahu posted on X that, on his orders, the Israeli army had “struck powerfully” 150 Hezbollah targets, killing dozens of militants.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the Israeli forces were operating in a “forward defense zone” and would continue doing so.
After Iran said its officials did not travel as planned to Switzerland, insisting that the fighting in Lebanon must stop before the talks can take place, U.S. Vice President JD Vance also postponed his trip.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told the semi-official ISNA news agency on Saturday that Pakistan's interior minister will arrive in Iran as part of continued negotiation efforts. Baghaei had said earlier that consultations through mediators were ongoing regarding the next phase of negotiations to draft a final U.S.-Iran agreement.
Because the initial deal was signed digitally earlier this week, the talks in Switzerland were not urgent, and plans were underway to hold a meeting in the coming days, he said.
The Swiss foreign ministry said diplomats were in talks on Saturday in the town of Bürgenstock on how to implement the U.S.-Iran deal, without offering details.
Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Jamey Keaten in Zurich, Switzerland, contributed to this report.
Buildings damaged by Israeli strikes are seen through shattered glass from the Jabal Amel Hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
