Two freight trains erupted into a fireball after colliding head-on in a Panhandle town Tuesday morning, injuring one man and leaving three people missing.
Lt. Bryan Witt of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the collision occurred near the town of Panhandle, about 25 miles northeast of Amarillo.
BNSF Railway spokesman Joe Faust said two BNSF trains were involved in the collision about 8:40 a.m.
Faust said two crew members were on each train. One man was able to jump off a train and was taken to a hospital. Emergency crews were searching for the other three.
Faust did not know how fast the trains were traveling at the time of the collision.
Images from KFDA-TV showed flames and thick black smoke engulfing a tangle of boxcars, several of which had derailed.
Billy B. Brown, a farmer who lives nearby, said he saw the fireball after the trains collided.
"I don't know how anyone survived," Brown said. "It's terrible. I've seen a number of train wrecks but I've never seen one like this."
Officials evacuated some of the nearby area over concern that the fire from the trains would spread.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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