PRAGUE: A train driver died and dozens of passengers were injured when a passenger train collided with a stationary freight train near Prague, a Czech minister and rescuers said Wednesday.

"Unfortunately... I have learnt there is one dead," Transport Minister Karel Havlicek told the public broadcaster Czech Television.

Rescuers said the deceased man was the driver of the passenger train, which was carrying more than 100 passengers.

"He was found lifeless in his wrecked cabin," the regional rescue service wrote on its website.

Havlicek told Czech Radio later that the driver had most probably ignored a red light.

The accident occurred after 1930 GMT on Tuesday near the town of Cesky Brod, about 30 kilometres (almost 20 miles) east of Prague, on a busy railway connecting the capital with the east of the country.