60 injured as tourist trains collide

More than 60 people were injured in a head-on collision between two trains packed with tourists near the Swiss Alpine resort of Interlaken today .

Investigating magistrate Barbara Baumgartner said the driver of one of the trains apparently ignored a red light and was to blame for the crash on a single track stretch of line between Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen.

The route is used by tourists visiting the Jungfraujoch – Europe’s highest railway station – and the surrounding Alps.

One man who had serious head injuries was flown to a hospital in the Swiss capital Bern. A further 26 people were taken to hospital, while 37 people who were only lightly injured were treated on the spot.

There was no immediate breakdown of nationalities of the tourists.

The crash happened when a local train on a scheduled journey from Interlaken was hit by a train, laid on as an extra because of the peak tourist season, heading down into the valley from the opposite direction.

The scheduled train managed to stop in response to frantic radio warnings, but the supplementary train failed to halt.

Several carriages of the trains – together carrying about 250 passengers - were derailed.

Baumgartner said that it was the driver of the supplementary train who was apparently to blame as he had ignored the red light.