UK rail crash may have been suicide

A high-speed train crash which killed seven people including a nine-year-old girl and injured scores more in southern England may have been caused by a car driver committing suicide, British police said yesterday.

The train, carrying 300 passengers, rammed into a car at a rail crossing and flew off the rails near the village of Ufton Nervet, 65 kilometres west of London on Saturday.

Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter of British Transport Police said he was looking at the possibility that the driver of the car, which was seen stationary on the crossing just before the crash, may have wanted to kill himself.

"It's one of our lines of inquiry, obviously, given the actions of the car driver, given the fact that he was stationary on the crossing - that leads us to think it may have been a deliberate action," Mr Trotter told BBC radio.