At least seven dead in Morocco train crash

A passenger train derailed Tuesday near the Moroccan capital Rabat killing at least seven people and injuring over 80 others, officials said.

"Regrettably, seven people died," regional health director Abdelmoula Boulamizat told the official MAP news agency.

National railway company boss Mohamed Rabie Khlie earlier gave a death toll of six, including the driver and his assistant, and said 86 people were injured.

Seven seriously injured people were receiving treatment in Rabat military hospital, with four in intensive care, MAP reported.

A short statement from the ONCF national railway company said "an investigation has been opened to determine the causes of the accident" and pledged to provide more information when it had it.

The crash occurred some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Rabat between the towns of Kenitra and Sale.

An AFP photographer saw rescue teams work to retrieve bodies from the overturned train after its carriages had toppled across the tracks. Railway boss Khlie said that such deadly accidents were rare in the North African country, pointing to a crash in 1993 that killed 15 people as "the last one".

King Mohammed VI said he would pay the burial costs of the victims and for the treatment of the injured, according to a royal cabinet statement.