Six people were killed and 31 injured when a train crashed into a collapsed bridge in the Czech Republic.

The international EuroCity train was travelling from the Polish city of Krakow to Prague, the Czech capital, at about 90 miles an hour when it struck the motorway bridge near the town of Studenka.

Lukas Humpl, an emergency services spokesman, said that five women and one man were killed in the crash, with 31 people injured, 13 critically.

Sixteen fire brigade units with 30 vehicles had been sent to the scene, along with ambulances and helicopters to ferry the injured to local hospitals.

It is still unclear how the bridge crumbled. Some reports suggest that it collapsed on to the train as it sped beneath the structure.

“It probably hit part of a motorway bridge under construction which fell on to the track,” said Jan Kucera, a Czech Railways spokesman. “There’s a lot of damage.”

It is thought that there were about 400 people aboard the train, including a large number of young music fans on their way to a festival in the central town of Pardubice.

Studenka lies about 350km from Prague and close to the eastern Czech city of Ostrava and the Polish border.

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?