A train driver of the state-owned train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) safely escaped from a burning passenger train on Tuesday night, minutes after the train he was driving crashed into a truck in Semarang, Central Java.

According to Semarang Police chief Sr. Comr. Irwan Anwar, the accident occurred at around 7.30 p.m. after a flatbed truck suddenly stalled on the train tracks when it was about to cross the railway crossing on Jl. Madukoro, Semarang.

"The truck driver and his assistant immediately [got out of the vehicle] and alerted the railway gate operator, but it was too late. The Brantas train was coming and the accident was unavoidable," Irwan told the press on Tuesday.

The Brantas train crashed into the truck at a high speed and dragged it several meters forward to a nearby Kokrosono railway bridge above the Semarang West Flood Canal.

When the truck hit the bridge, it burst into flames, several viral videos showed. The locomotive and at least one passenger car were caught in the explosion.

The Brantas Train consists of 10 carriages, and when the accident occurred, it was carrying more than 600 passengers. The train was bound for Blitar Station in Blitar, East Java from Pasar Senen Station in Jakarta.

In a video that was widely circulated on social media platforms, the Brantas train driver, 34-year-old Budi Winarno, was seen limping along the Kokrosono bridge minutes after the incident, while the train he was driving was blazing in the background.

KAI spokesperson Joni Martinus said Budi escaped without sustaining any injury and all passengers were also safe.

"The train driver, the assistant driver and all passengers were safe, but there were damages on the [double-track] railway that resulted in delays on other train trips," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to Joni, authorities managed to clear one of the two train tracks at the crash site from the burning debris at around 10 p.m. The Brantas train later resumed its trip from a nearby Jerakah Station.

At least 10 other train trips were delayed for up to more than two hours after the Tuesday accident, Joni added.

The driver of the flatbed truck, 43-year-old Heru Susanto, turned himself in to the police in the early hours of Wednesday morning after fleeing the scene shortly after the accident, Semarang Police chief Irwan said.

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