Rail traffic was severely disrupted on Monday afternoon due to a collision at Brussels Central Station. The situation was restored about two hours later.
Rail traffic was disrupted from 14:50. National railway operator SNCB noted a person was hit by a train. The emergency services are on site and the victim, who is still alive, is being cared for.
"A collision on the tracks at Brussels Central has disrupted train traffic between Brussels North and Brussels Midi," SNCB wrote on Twitter. "Delays and cancellations are expected."
The train involved came from Liesse in Wallonia and was travelling in the direction of Brussels Midi, the region's southern station.
Two tracks were inaccessible as a result of this incident, forcing SNCB to divert its trains onto four tracks instead of six. This is likely to lead to major disruption on all lines crossing Brussels on the Nord-Midi axis, given the approaching rush hour. Nearly 1,200 trains run every day on this axis.
One of the two tracks was made available again around 15:50, and by 17:00, SNCB announced the situation had been "restored", but some delays and cancellations remained possible.
Due to infrastructure damage earlier in the day near Kontich-Lint, train traffic was already disrupted between Antwerp-Central and Brussels-Midi. As a result of this, only two in four IC trains per hour are running. The end of the disruption caused by this damage is expected on 2 January at the earliest, SNCB warned.
This article was updated to include information about the situation being restored.
