Rescuers work at the site of an accident where a metro and a bus collided outside Buenos Aires Sept. 13, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

BUENOS AIRES - Nine people died in Argentina on Tuesday and at least 214 were injured after two trains and a public bus collided in a crash in the heart of Buenos Aires, local police said.

At least 50 of the wounded were "seriously injured" after the first train ran into a bus at a crossing and was derailed, at which point a second train coming from the opposite direction crashed into the train and the bus stuck at the crossing, police said.

The accident occurred at 6:30 local time (0930 GMT) in the capital's upscale western neighborhood of Las Flores and involved two trains from the Sarmiento public railway.

Gustavo Gago, spokesman for the Buenos Aires Trains company, the main train company for rail operations connecting the western suburbs of Buenos Aires with the center of the capital, said the number 92 line bus had tried to cross the rails even though the barrier was down.

Police arrested the driver of the bus and held him in custody while considering what kind of charges to hold him responsible for, Gago said.

After the accident, 7 people including a boy died and 162 injured has been taken to local hospitals in Buenos Aires, including all the 50 most seriously injured, said Federal Police Chief Omar Bravo and Alberto Crescenti, the general director of the Emergency Medical Attention System (SAME).

The worst train accident in Argentina's history happened in 1970 when more than 200 people were killed in a similar crash in the capital.