Five people including a child were killed and another 52 were taken to hospital, many with serious injuries, the ministry said. Among the injured were eight soldiers, Mosaique FM radio station reported. A local court official said signals and safety gates had been out of service at the time of the crash.
"This failure is at the root of the collision," Moez Bouraoui, a court spokesman from Ben Arous south of the capital, told Mosaique FM. The national railway company said it had begun an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.