Four children from a Dutch day-care centre have died in a collision involving a train and an electric cart driven by a supervisor.
The children were being taken to local schools in the cart when the accident happened on a level crossing in the southern town of Oss, west of Nijmegen.
A fifth child and a woman were seriously hurt in the crash.
The woman on the back of the cart had just dropped off a child at one school before setting off for another.
The children who died near Oss-West station were of primary-school age, which in the Netherlands can start at four.
What led to crash?
Although the level crossing has barriers, unconfirmed reports suggest the cart carrying the five children had gone under the barrier on a bike path before it was hit.
Witnesses said 15 cars had been waiting at the level crossing when the cart, known as a Stint, had gone past, the Volkskrant website reported. The day-centre was known to use a Stint cart to transport its children.
Children have for years been taken to school by cargo bike in the Netherlands, and the electric cart has become increasingly popular with some 30,000 in use across the country. Described as a cross between a segway and a cargo bike, anyone can take control of the cart over the age of 16 after taking a short course.
The woman on the back of the cart reportedly said that the brakes had failed.
The founder of the Renzen company that makes the cart told public broadcaster NOS that the accident was every parent's worst nightmare and he was intending to visit the scene.
'Unacceptable' casualties on level crossings
The tragedy came as a shock for residents in Oss, where a help centre was set up.
"We've been hit very hard. All our sympathies are with the families, the school, the day-care centre and everyone else caught up in this," said mayor Wobine Buijs-Glaudemans.
An average of 11 people are killed on Dutch level crossings every year and the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) released a report in July saying the number of casualties was "unacceptable" in "the only country in Europe with both a high volume of train traffic and a large number of level crossings".
The OVV was responding to three accidents in 2016 and 2017 in which two people had died and 18 were hurt. Most accidents had happened on manned level crossings, it said, calling for action to prevent people going over the crossings when barriers were down.
Rail officials on Thursday spoke of an "ink-black day" and infrastructure secretary Stientje van Veldhoven said she had a "knot" in her stomach. "From the bottom of my heart, all the best to everyone involved."
Prime Minister Mark Rutte tweeted that he was deeply moved by the "horrific accident".
Source: bbc
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