Woman killed, 96 injured, in train derailment

An investigation was today taking place into how an Amtrak train carrying 210 people from Chicago to California derailed in rural Iowa, killing an elderly woman and injuring 96 others.

At least seven of the injured passengers were taken to hospital and dozens of others were treated and released from local hospitals after suffering minor injuries. Some crew members sustained minor injuries, an Amtrak spokeswoman said.

The train engineer said he felt the train ‘‘tugging’’ before the crash at 11.40pm on Saturday night (0440 GMT Sunday), although investigators said it was too early to say whether a broken rail was responsible for the crash, 70 miles southwest of Des Moines.

Terry Williams, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators were gathering details on the scene.

The California Zephyr’s two locomotives and 15 cars were carrying 195 passengers and 15 crew members, Amtrak spokeswoman Debra Hare said. Amtrak spokeswoman Karen Dunn said company policy forbade it from releasing the victim’s name and a list of passengers.

But Charlie Romstad of Colorado Springs, Colorado, told The Associated Press news agency that the passenger killed was his mother, Stella Riehl, 69, also of Colorado Springs.

Romstad, 46, said his mother came to Des Moines last week because her brother, who was living in a Des Moines nursing home, had died.

The scene of the wreckage stretched a quarter of a mile. Workers began picking up debris near the tipped-over cars, some of which formed a V-shape along the tracks.

Two silver cars lay across the railroad, and an overturned car lay parallel to the track in a muddy bank. Other cars teetered along the track near the snow-covered ground.

‘‘I think everybody was amazed that there weren’t more fatalities and injuries,’’ said Nodaway Fire Chief Larry Pond.