JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Two freight trains collided Tuesday in west Jackson, starting fires around the engines and in a nearby wooded area.
All five crewmembers on the two trains were taken to hospitals for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, Kansas City Southern Railroad spokeswoman Doniele Kane said.
R.D. Simpson, a spokesman for the Jackson Fire Department, said later that two of injured were removed from the wreckage and taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in critical condition.
The trains, one westbound from Meridian and the other eastbound from Shreveport, La., collided about 8:47 a.m. There were no homes or businesses in the immediate collision area.
Kane said there were no hazardous materials on the two trains, both operated by Kansas City Southern. The fire was from the locomotives' diesel fuel and was extinguished, she said.
Jackson police said about 24 cars from the two trains had derailed. Police said the locomotives were upright but had been damaged.
Most of the trains' cars were empty, said Amy Carruth, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Police said two tanker cars had ruptured but they also were empty.
Several streets in the area were blocked off for a time as a precaution.
Beverly Jefferson, assistant director of the Kids Connection daycare in west Jackson, said workers heard the trains collide and saw the dark smoke. The center housed 35 children, ranging in age from 1 to 12.
''We put the kids to one side of the building,'' Jefferson said. ''Parents began to come get their children when they heard about the train wreck, but some parents have been frantic because they couldn't get through because the road is blocked.''
