At least seven dead in US train crash

The Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia, killing at least seven people, was hurtling at more than 100mph (160kph) before it ran off the rails on a sharp bend where the speed limit is just 50mph (80kph), federal investigators said today.

The engineer at the controls refused to give a statement to authorities and left a police station with a lawyer, police said.

More than 200 people were injured in the derailment which plunged screaming passengers into darkness and chaos. It was America’s deadliest train accident in nearly seven years.