Rome - Three people died and about 110 were hurt, including 10
with life-threatening injuries, in a commuter train crash near Milan,
a regional government spokeswoman said Thursday.
The six-carriage Trenord train left Cremona, a city about 90
kilometres south-east of Milan, at about 5:30 am (0430 GMT) and
derailed at around 7 am near the suburban municipality of Pioltello.
"It was commuter hour, the train was full," Chiara Ambrosio, the
deputy police chief of Milan, told broadcaster SkyTG24.
It took about three hours to extract survivors and victims from the
mangled carriages, according to the ANSA news agency. On TV footage,
helicopters could be seen taking the injured to nearby hospitals.
Footage also showed that only the central carriages derailed,
suggesting that the accident may have been caused by a malfunctioning
railway switch.
"Everything was going well, suddenly the train started shaking, then
we heard a bang and the carriages derailed," a survivor, who did not
give his name, told ANSA.
Prosecutors rushed to the scene alongside firemen and police,
questioned the train driver and opened an investigation into the
accident.
Rail traffic on the eastbound line out of Milan was suspended
following the accident, Italian rail-track company Rete Ferroviaria
Italiana said.
The last deadly railway accident in Italy took place in July 2016,
when 23 people were killed in a double train collision between Corato
and Andria, near the south-eastern city of Bari.