Halle: Belgian train drivers went on strike in protest at working conditions shortly after investigations into the head on collision between two rush hour trains in which 18 people died started on Tuesday.
The SNCB rail company said the spontaneous walkout had been widely followed and many cancellations and delays would follow.
An investigation was launched into the cause of the crash, which happened at the height of the morning rush hour, with suspicions of driver error as well as a lack of safety equipment on one of the trains.
In a joint statement Infrabel, which runs the Belgian rail network, and SNCB, which runs the trains, said the death toll stood at 18 with 95 injured.
Eleven of the injured were said to be in serious condition.
Emergency workers suspended after nightfall a search for more bodies in the mangled wreckage of the carriages.
Brussels train crash: `We were knocked down like ninepins"
"We don`t think there are any more victims in the trains," said crisis centre official Anja De Wolf. "But there could still be more bodies trapped under the carriages," she said.
The high-speed crash, one of the worst rail accidents in Belgian history, happened at around 8:30 am (0730 GMT) as commuters headed to work in the capital.
Groggy survivors wandered around in a state of shock or burst into tears as they were taken to a nearby sports centre to be treated. The Belgian Red Cross issued an appeal for blood donors.
"The shock was terrifying, it knocked us down like ninepins," said a survivor who gave her name only as Sylvie as she emerged with an injured arm.
Late Monday Infrabel and SNCG in their statement revised talk of a head-on collision, saying the trains had hit laterally "for unknown reasons".
Some carriages were hurled onto their sides in thick snow near Halle, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) southwest of Brussels.
The accident, which involved 250 to 300 commuters in the two trains, left thousands of travellers elsewhere stranded as Eurostar and Thalys suspended international services to and from Brussels.
PTI
