Three Israelis killed by train at Swiss rail crossing

ZURICH (Reuters) – Three Israelis were killed and five others seriously injured when their minibus collided with a train at a railroad crossing in a village in central Switzerland, Swiss police said on Monday.

Police in the canton of Nidwalden said they were alerted to the collision at the crossing in Wolfenschiessen at 0640 GMT. No one on the train, operated by Zentralbahn (ZB), was hurt.

Many rail crossings in Switzerland are ungated. The Wolfenschiessen crossing is due to be refurbished, along with more than 100 other unsecured crossings, by the end of 2014, Switzerland’s railway operator and ZB majority shareholder SBB said.

Police said the cause of the accident would be subject to further investigation.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; editing by Andrew Roche)