Nine killed as train jumps rails

NINE people were killed yesterday when a commuter train jumped off its rails in a ravine outside Sydney.

More than 20 people were seriously hurt in the accident, which happened 20 miles south of the city centre during morning rush hour.

All four of the train's double-decker carriages lay crumpled or toppled into a ravine. Rescuers had to struggle on foot through more than a mile of rugged terrain before helping the passengers.

Some rescue workers used rocks to smash vandal-proof windows made of reinforced glass. Doctors and paramedics were also lowered to the scene by helicopter and others were taken in by army troop carriers.

After visiting the site of the accident, a visibly shaken New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr said nine people were confirmed dead.

By mid-afternoon, passengers who had been imprisoned in the wreckage some for hours had all been freed and 39 taken to the hospital.

"I can assure you that it is not a good scene at the moment," said police commissioner Dave Madden.

Earlier, a spokesman for a helicopter emergency service said it looked like a battlefield.

"The scene can be only described similar to what we have seen in recent war movies ... where there are bodies just strewn around the scene," said Stephen Leahy of Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter.

One survivor, 21-year-old Arnouska Zehalko, told her parents it was a scene of carnage.

She said: "I could see the front carriage come in front, I could see it turn over, and the next minute I knew that we were all flipping over."