CAPE TOWN (AFP) -- A Cape Town passenger train smashed through a barrier and crashed into a wall after an apparent brake failure Friday morning, slightly injuring 29 people, a railway official said.

"Twenty-nine commuters have been slightly injured and hospitalized including the driver of the train," Metrorail spokeswoman Riana Jacobs said in a media statement. A witness told Cape Talk radio station: "I looked to my right and I thought that ‘train is not going to stop’. It didn't even appear to be braking. It just went straight through the wall."

The train was traveling from Wellington, northeast of Cape Town, when it went through a barrier separating the tracks from the pedestrian walkway at around 08:00 A.M. (1000 GMT) and crashed into a wall.

Jacobs said it was difficult to say how many passengers were on board but the train carries about 800 commuters during peak times. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, and only an inquiry would tell whether reports of a brake failure were correct, she added.

At least 37 people have died in railway accidents in South Africa since February 2001, including a crash in the Kwazulu-Natal Province last year that killed 24 and injured 156, prompting officials to review railway safety.