Italian Train Derailment and Explosion

Eye-witnesses are recounting the terrible moment when an explosion rocked the Italian town of Viareggio after a train carrying liquefied petroleum gas derailed. 16 people are dead and 50 were injured in the accident.
At least 16 people were killed and 50 injured overnight in Italy when a freight train hauling liquefied petroleum gas derailed and exploded as it passed their homes, officials said on Tuesday.

About 1,000 people were evacuated following the blast just before midnight on Monday in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio, about 350 km north of Rome.

Thirty-seven people were serious injured, with 15 of them in critical condition, including a 2-year-old who was badly burned and was being transferred to a hospital in Florence. Three children were among the dead.

It was Italy's most deadly rail accident since 17 people were killed in January 2005, when a passenger train collided with a freight train near the northern city of Bologna.




For the lucky few who managed to escape unharmed, the full horror of what happened is finally coming home to roost.

[Witness]:




"My son called me telling me to come downstairs because everything was on fire and it was like an apocolyptic scene. A young boy with a child jumped out of a window to save themselves - a scene I hope never to relive because I was really afraid. In the first few minutes I just didn't think I would make it because there were a series of explosions. People just couldn't do anything because with fire there is just nothing you can do but we somehow managed to survive without any injury."

State railways said the accident occurred when one carriage derailed, pulling another four with it. Liquefied petroleum gas escaped from a tank on one of the carriages and caught fire.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NTD
• Italy
• Train
• Derailment
• Explosion
• Viareggio
• Bologna
• Accident