37 dead in Sri Lanka train crash
 |  A solider walks near the remains of a bus after a train collided with it at a railway crossing in Sri Lanka. |
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 A fiery collision between a bus and a train in Sri Lanka kills at least 60.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- A fiery train-bus accident in Sri Lanka has killed at least 37 people and injured scores of others, according to police, rescue workers and hospital staff.
Police said the death toll in Wednesday's crash included two passengers who died after being taken to a hospital.
The bus driver is being blamed for the accident, with authorities saying the driver was negligent.
He apparently had driven around the barriers at a rail crossing and was traveling over the tracks when the bus -- which was carrying 70 to 100 people -- became struck, police said.
The collision was so violent, according to authorities, that the train split the bus in half and set it on fire.
The accident occurred at 8:35 a.m. (10:35 p.m. EDT Tuesday) about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of the capital, Colombo, along the Colombo-Kandy rail line.
The federal government said it was saddened by the tragedy.
"We have immediately informed services to help the victims, and have sent a team to the location as well to see what can be done," Transport Minister Felix Perera told local television station Sirasa TV.
"Right now what we can do is not to think of the train but to think of the lives of the injured passengers and the dead. Now we are concentrating on what can be done to help the victims."
The loss-making, state-run Sri Lanka Railways operates an antiquated network built largely during British colonial rule, and has seen little investment since the island gained independence in 1948.
The country's road and rail systems, like most of its infrastructure, were further neglected during two decades of civil war since the early 1980s when Tamil Tiger rebels launched a revolt for a separate ethnic homeland.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
