One dead, 32 hurt, in rush-hour train crash

At least one person was killed and 32 injured when two crowded passenger trains collided during the rush hour in a Zurich suburb, overturning one carriage on to a 16,000-volt power line and derailing two more.

Dr Meinrad Lienert of city rescue services said a woman died and eight people, including a child, were seriously injured in last night’s accident. The remaining injuries were moderate to light, Lienert said.

Hans Mundwiler, chief of the Zurich fire department, said the overturned passenger carriage landed on a 16,000-volt power line. “It’s a wonder that no one was electrocuted,” he said.

He said the car was perched precariously on an overpass. Some victims were trapped inside and had to be cut free, and were taken down ladders from carriage’s windows to the street below.

More than 200 emergency workers worked at the scene of the crash.

The crash happened at an important railway junction outside the station in Oerlikon, near the Zurich airport. Rail traffic throughout the region was disrupted.

Police spokesman Marco Cortesi would not identify any victims, but said it was assumed many of them were Germans because the trains were travelling between Zurich and the German border area.

Florian Staehli, who was working at a computer firm near the site, said: “There was a huge crash and a large cloud of dust.

“Many of the passengers climbed out of the windows.”

The collision occurred shortly before 6pm local time (5pm Irish time) at a crossing. One of the trains was travelling from Zurich to Constance, over the border in Germany, and the other was coming from Schaffhausen, in northern Switzerland, near Constance.