At least nine people were killed and nearly 50 injured in Turkey when a high speed train collided with a locomotive and crashed into a station platform and overpass in an Ankara suburb on Thursday morning

Rescuers worked to free people trapped under the mangled wreckage at Marsandiz train station, 8 kilometres from central Ankara although it was not immediately clear at which speed the train and locomotive were traveling when the collision occurred.

Rescue officials in the country said the train which was carrying 206 passengers was heading to the central Turkish province of Konya from Ankara and was not scheduled to stop at Marsandiz.

The country’s Minister of Transport, Cahit Turhan told reporters at the scene of the accident that three train drivers were among the nine killed in the crash

Turkey has been developing a network of high-speed rail links during Tayyip Erdogan’s 16-year-old rule as it looks to ease the burden on the country’s increasingly congested highways.