WREG.com

Two killed after Amtrak train hits vehicle in Mississippi

Members of the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department and Lauderdale County Fire Service respond to a car-train crash Monday afternoon, July 22, 2019, near Meridian, Miss. A northbound Amtrak train struck a vehicle at a crossing, killing the vehicles' two occupants.(David Bohrer/The Meridian Star via AP)

MERIDIAN, Miss. — A sheriff says two people have been killed after the vehicle they were in was struck by a passenger train in eastern Mississippi.

Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie tells the Meridian Star the wreck happened Monday afternoon at an ungated crossing off U.S. Highway 11, south of Meridian Regional Airport.

The Amtrak train was traveling from New Orleans to Meridian and points northeast. An Amtrak representative told WTOK-TV that nobody was injured aboard the train, called the Crescent. It continued its journey after tracks were cleared.

The Crescent is not the train that runs from New Orleans to Memphis, which is the City of New Orleans.

Sollie says the man and the woman who were killed were not immediately identified. He says based on paperwork in the vehicle, they appeared to be from the area.

The train came to a stop around three miles south of the airport.