Argentine train accident toll up to 50, 340 injured

23.02.2012

Argentine train accident toll up to 50

A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station on Wednesday, injuring at least 340 morning commuters, Argentina's transportation secretary said.

"There are people still trapped, people alive, and there may have been fatalities. We don't know if there are dead people" in the wreckage, JP Schiavi told reporters at the station.

The commuter train came in too fast and hit the barrier at the end of the platform at about 12 mph (20 kph), smashing the front of the engine and crunching the leading cars behind it, Schiavi said. One car penetrated nearly 20 feet (six meters) into the next, he said.

Most damaged was the first car, where passengers make space for bicycles. Survivors told the TeleNoticias channel that many people were injured in a jumble of metal and glass.