JAKARTA - FOURTEEN people were killed and more than a dozen injured on Sunday when a train slammed into a minibus on a level crossing in the Indonesian province of Central Java, reports said.

At around 10.20am (0320 GMT, 11.20am Singapore time) the train sped through a crossing with a missing safety gate and hit the minibus carrying 35 people, dragging it for a hundred metres, news website Detiknews.com reported.

'The victims were taken to hospitals,' railways spokesman Eko Budiyanto was quoted as saying by the Kompas website.

A police spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Deadly accidents are common at level crossings in Indonesia, many of which are poorly maintained, especially in densely populated Java island. -- AFP