Probe into rail crash gets underway

A full search of the Potters Bar rail crash scene is underway today as police worked to discover what caused the disaster which left seven people dead.

Specially-trained search teams from British Transport Police were heading to the grim site this morning to begin their meticulous work.

Heavy lifting machinery is also due to arrive today, and will be erected over the next 24 hours, a Hertfordshire Police spokeswoman said.

Engineers worked through the night to shore up the bridge hit by the four-carriage 12.45 from King’s Cross to King’s Lynn electric train.

The scene this morning remained a chilling one, with the train’s fourth carriage still wedged across two platforms.

The death toll rose to seven overnight, when an 80-year-old woman died from her injuries at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north-west London.

Police said four bodies had been recovered from either inside the carriage which left the rails, or underneath it, while a fifth body was found on the road under the railway bridge. A sixth person also died in hospital.

Four people remained in a critical condition, police said.

A further 10 people remained in a non-critical state, the police statement said.

A British Transport Police spokesman said: ‘‘Teams are heading to the site this morning and will begin a detailed search of the scene. They are specially trained for this kind of situation.’’

Hertfordshire Police have also renewed appeals for the owners of 70 cars parked in the station car park to collect them as soon as possible, so heavy lifting gear can be taken on to the site.

Owners are asked to take some form of identification with them and may be asked by officers if they were in the area yesterday or have any information about the crash, the spokeswoman added.

British Transport Police are leading the investigation into the disaster with HM Rail Inspectors and the Health and Safety Executive, but said it was too early to speculate on what caused the carnage.

Attention has centred on a set of points the train passed over at 100mph shortly before it hit a bridge, raining debris on to cars on the road below and causing the final carriage to scythe on to the platform at Potters Bar station.

Railtrack chief executive John Armitt said yesterday: ‘‘We do not understand the cause of the accident but will leave no stone unturned to discover what’s happened.’’

A set of wheels, which came off the final carriage, remained on the line this morning.

Some experts were pointing at possible similarities with a German train crash which was caused by a piece of broken wheel striking a set of points.