During the morning rush hour on Monday, two crowded commuter trains collided with one another head-on in Vienna, Austria, leaving dozens of people seriously injured including five in critical condition.

"At the moment there are five people seriously injured and several people with light injuries. The seriously injured were taken immediately to hospital," emergency services spokesperson Claudia Gigler told AFP.

Twenty-five fire engines along with helicopter ambulances and an accident train immediately showed up at the scene of the severe accident. Many of the injured commuters had to be removed from the wreckage with a special crane and most of the people were said to be in severe shock.

"Two of the seriously injured are in a life-threatening condition, one of whom is one of the train drivers. In total 41 people were hurt. One good thing was that the crash happened right next to an emergency services station, meaning that our people were there in seconds," emergency spokesperson Ronald Packert said.

Packert also stated that one of the seriously injured passengers had to be cut out of the mangled wreckage after being stuck underneath.

Austrian Railways said that the reason for the accident appeared to be a technical mistake, which resulted in both trains traveling toward each other on the very same track.

"There was a technical problem. One of the trains received a signal to proceed that it shouldn't have," company spokesperson Sarah Nettel said.

It took nearly two hours to empty both of the trains, which smashed into each other at 8:45 a.m. in the Penzing district of western Vienna.

Last September, another scary incident involving a train occurred in the same area as it came off the railroad tracks. Human error was blamed for the incident, as a railroad worker switched a point in the wrong way. Fortunately, nobody was reported injured.

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