The number and severity of the injuries were not immediately known, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said.

It was unclear what the trains were carrying. The track is a main rail link between Fort Worth, Amarillo and Denver.

A large fireball erupted after the 9 a.m. collision, sending columns of thick smoke into the air, witnesses told Amarillo television station KAMR.

"We can see the smoke from here," Kathy Taylor, assistant manager at a Dairy Queen about three miles from the crash site, said.

Sgt. Richard Gribble of the Clarendon Department of Public Safety said an eastbound coal train collided head on with a westbound freight train shortly before 9 a.m., according to the Clarendon Enterprise (http://www.clarendononline.com/), which features a photograph of the scene on its website.

Names of crewmembers and a manifest of the freight train were not yet available, the Enterprise reported.

Local emergency crews worked to free at least one member of the train crew, the Enterprise reported. Three crew members were transported to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. A fourth person, believed to be a member of the train crew, was killed and his body was pinned beneath the burning train wreckage.

Fire departments from surrounding towns rushed to the scene to assist local firefighters in containing the blaze, the Enterprise said. Firemen kept the train engines doused with water in an effort to calm flames fueled by diesel. Chemical foam was brought in from Pampa, Canyon, and Abilene to help extinguish the fire.

The fire appeared to be contained to engines, according to the Enterprise. A plume of black smoke could be seen for more than 20 miles away, and US 287 was reduced to two lanes with westbound traffic being moved to one of the eastbound lanes.

About 2,000 people live in Clarendon, about 55 miles southeast of Amarillo, the AP reported.