Two men died after their car was hit by a train on a railway crossing.
The passenger train was travelling at 60mph when it ploughed into the vehicle on the crossing at Great Coates in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, last night.
One of the men in the car died at the scene and the other while on route to hospital, British Transport Police (BTP) said.
None of the five passengers on the commuter train, the TransPennine Cleethorpes to Scunthorpe service, was injured, police added.
Lyndsey Downes, who lives near the scene of the accident, dialled the emergency services after she and her husband heard "an extremely loud bang", the BBC said.
"We (then) saw some sort of debris flying past the window and the train screeching to a halt," she said.
"We opened the door to go outside to see what it was and one of my neighbours shouted to ring 999, which I did.
"I then kept out of the way and I could see it all unfolding up the road."
She said that her neighbours tried to help at the scene before paramedics arrived.
Nicola Maasdam, chairwoman of Great Coates Village Council, told the BBC residents would be in "shock".
"It's absolutely tragic and our thoughts go out to the families of those people who have lost their lives," she said.
"There will be shock. It's such a small village and we haven't had an incident on the railway for years and years, and for something as serious as this, it is really upsetting."
A BTP spokesman said the incident happened at 7.39pm yesterday at the automatic half barrier crossing at Great Coates in Grimsby, and that all passengers were safely taken off the train.
"We are keeping an open mind, but indications so far are that the crossing was working correctly and this was a tragic accident," the spokesman said.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch had been informed, police added.
