Train carrying liquid gas explodes in Italy killing 12
A freight train has derailed and ploughed into houses in the small Italian town of Viareggio, causing an explosion and a fire that killed at least 12 people and injured at least 50, officials said today.
The 14-car train was travelling from La Spezia to Pisa when a rear car crashed into a residential neighbourhood beside the train station just before midnight yesterday.
A train car filled with liquefied petroeum gas - a mix of butane and propane - exploded, collapsing five buildings and setting fire to the surrounding area. Homes crumbled or burned, killing residents as they slept.
The exact death toll was unclear as hundreds of rescuers searched through the rubble for survivors.
Guido Bertolaso, chief of the civil protection department, said 12 people had been killed and four were missing. Other reports put the death toll at 15 or 16.
Many of the injured suffered severe burns.
"We saw a ball of fire rising up to the sky," said Gianfranco Bini, who lives in a building overlooking the station. "We heard three big rumbles, like bombs. It looked like war had broken out."
His son, Gianni Bini, said he had seen a truck driver running away on fire. "This truck was passing by ... when it was hit by the heat wave, and I saw the driver ablaze, getting off and walking away," he said.
Videos uploaded on to YouTube showed a huge plume of fire and smoke towering above Viareggio's low houses. The blaze continued through the night, consuming buildings and cars. TV images showed residents, their bodies blackened by the smoke, being carried away on stretchers.
Bertolaso called the accident one of Italy's worst railway tragedies. The prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who was in Naples, said he would go to Viareggio later today.
The train accident was the deadliest since January 2005, when 17 people were killed in a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train. That collision, which occurred in thick fog on a single-track line near Bologna, in northern Italy, led to calls for improved train safety.
Ten buildings and dozens of cars had been at least partially burned in the latest derailment, firefighters said.
Officials said the death toll could increase as 300 firefighters and other rescue teams searched through the rubble.
Prefect Carmelo Aronica, the top government official for the nearby city of Lucca, into whose administrative area the smaller town of Viareggio falls, told Italy's RAI state TV that at least 50 people were injured, with 35 in hospital with severe burns. Three children had been pulled alive from the rubble of their collapsed home shortly before daybreak today, he said.
About 1,000 people had been evacuated from their homes as a precaution, said the mayor of Viareggio, Luca Lunardini. Tents were set up around the town hall for about 200 people.
As the firefighters worked to contain the blaze, teams trained to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical threats were being brought in to prevent the other gas tanks from exploding. Officials said the fire had been contained after several hours, but a smell of burning hung in the air.
"There are dozens and dozens of cars hit by the shockwave, and collapsed houses," said Luca Cari, a spokesman for firefighters.
Some of the victims, including one child, had been killed in their homes, said Raffaele Gargiulo, a Lucca police spokesman. Two drivers who were on the road alongside the tracks when the train derailed were also killed. Others suffered severe burns and died at the hospital.
"The condition of the bodies is such that it will be very difficult to identify them," Gargiulo said.
Italy's state-run railway company said the first rail car was registered with the Polish company PKP, while the other 13 cars were registered with the German rail company Deutsche Bahn. The cars were driven by a locomotive from the Italian rail operator Trenitalia.
In a statement, the company said the first car had appeared to derail and explode, pulling another four cars with it. The cause was unclear.
The train's two engineers were only lightly injured. While being questioned in the hospital, they said they had felt an impact some 200 metres outside the station, shortly before the rear of the train flew off the tracks, Gargiulo said.
He said the derailment may have been caused by damage to the tracks or by a problem with the train's braking system.