At least three people died and 63 were injured when two passenger trains collided at a railway station in central China yesterday. Both trains were heading to Shenzhen,

A train from Tongren, Guizhou province, was preparing to leave Chenzhou station in Hunan province when a train from the provincial capital Changsha crashed into it at 2:34 am, the Ministry of Railways said.

The impact caused the engine and first five cars of the train from Tongren and the engine and two cars of the train from Changsha to derail.

The Changsha train also hit several houses, causing them to collapse. Rescuers said they found one body in one of the houses and two bodies in a train car.

The names of the three victims were not known.

Rescuers pulled out 11 passengers trapped in the train wreckage. More than 60 passengers were taken to nearby hospitals for emergency treatment.

A ministry spokesman said six were seriously injured but were in stable condition.

Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun, who is overseeing the rescue work, said the ministry would investigate the cause to prevent such an accident from occurring again.

Some passengers said the Changsha train did not slow down as it was entering the Chenzhou station.

A female passenger on the Changsha train who identified herself as Yi said: "Our train ran into the railway station without slowing down, which is very strange."

As she was questioning the speed, she heard a loud bang. "All lights in the carriage went out, and I smelled something scorched. People all began to shout and cry."

Though the car she was in was badly damaged, she managed to climb out unscathed. "I feel so lucky that I did not get hurt at all," she said.

Chen Changhua, another passenger in the same car, was not as lucky.

Chen said he was sitting by the window when the crash occurred, and the force threw him into the air, injuring his arm.

Nearly 1,000 passengers were stranded in the railway station in the morning.

Many were taken to Shenzhen in buses allocated by local officials.

The rest took other trains to their destinations later in the day.

Some trains were delayed yesterday due to the accident, but traffic had resumed by noon, a ministry spokesman said.

Last April, two passenger trains collided in Shandong province, killing 72 people and injuring 416.