Head-on Brussels train smash kills at least 18

A head-on collision between two commuter trains outside Brussels during the rush-hour yesterday killed at least 18 people and injured some 125, an official said, adding that driver error was suspected.

The crash, one of the worst rail accidents in Belgian history, happened at around 8.30 a.m. (0730 GMT), as commuters headed to work in the capital, leaving the front ends of both trains pushed upwards in a mass of twisted metal.

Other carriages were hurled on to their sides after the crash in thick snow near Halle, about 15 kilometres southwest of Brussels.

Blood-stained wounded were rushed on stretchers towards ambulances along the tracks through falling snow, while an official said doctors were carrying out amputations at the scene.

Groggy survivors wandered around in a state of shock or burst into tears as they were taken to a nearby sports centre to be treated.

Rescue workers were searching the wreckage for bodies and in the hope of finding survivors hours after the crash, which came after days of snow, while heavy lifting gear was brought in to clear the tracks.

Flemish Brabant provincial governor Lodewijk De Witte said the bodies of 15 men and three women had been recovered, but the toll was expected to rise further.

Other sources said that up to 25 people had died.

"Right now there are still bodies trapped in there," a firefighter said.

"We are also collecting fragments of clothing from the accident site which could help in the identification process," he added.

An investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash, which surviving passengers said came totally without warning. Mr De Witte said one train had apparently failed to stop at a red light.

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme expressed his shock, curtailing a trip to the Balkans to head back to Belgium where he was to meet up with King Albert II at the crash scene, his spokesman said.

"First Liege, and now this," Mr Leterme said, referring to the collapse last month of an apartment block in the eastern Belgian city where 14 dead were pulled out of the rubble.

"The shock was terrifying, it knocked us down like ninepins," said one of the passengers, who gave her name as Sylvie as she emerged, with an injured arm, from the crash near the Brussels suburb of Halle.

Gaetan, 36, who was in one of the last carriages of the train coming from Mons, near the French border, emerged unharmed.

"I was lucky. I saw people dead and injured," he said.

The crash on a key line caused widespread rail disruption, with all Eurostar high-speed train services to and from London cancelled for the day, as well as Thalys rail services to France, Germany and elsewhere.

One of the trains had been travelling northwards from Quievrain, near the French border in the southern region of Wallonia, to Liege. The other was coming from Leuven, in the northern Flanders region.

The two trains were carrying some 250-300 people in total, an SNCB rail official said.

Messages of aid and condolences also came swiftly from the European Union, which has its headquarters in Brussels.

EU Commission chief José Manuel Barroso spoke of his "deep sadness" at the news of the tragedy, and said the EU executive stood ready to help where possible.

It was one of the worst rail accidents in Belgian history.

Europe's worst rail accidents this century

2000
January 4: Norway - Head-on collision between two passenger trains in Aasta, southern Norway, near Lillehammer: 19 dead.
2001
January 3: Spain - Collision between a van carrying Ecuadoran immigrant labourers and a train at a level crossing near Lorca, southeastern Spain: 12 dead.
May 23: Russia - Train ploughs into a bus on an unmarked rail crossing, killing 14 people in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
2002
November 6: France - Paris-Vienna sleeper car catches fire in Nancy: 12 dead.
2003
May 8: Hungary - Collision between a train and German tourist bus kills 33 people near Siofok, in western Hungary.
June 3: Spain - Crash between a passenger and freight train near the eastern town of Chinchilla leaves 19 dead.
2004
July 22: Turkey - Derailment of Istanbul-Ankara express near the northwestern town of Pamukova kills 37.
2005
January 7: Italy - Collision between a freight and a regional passenger train kills 17 and wounds a dozen people near Bologna.
2006
January 13: Russia - Crash involving a train and bus kills 22 in the southern Krasnodar region.
January 23: Serbia and Montenegro - Derailment of a packed train in Montenegro leaves 47 dead.
September 22: Germany - Trial run of a high-speed magnetic train near the northwestern town of Lathen kills 23.
2009
June 30: Italy - A train ferrying liquid petroleum gas derails in Italian seaside resort Viareggio, sparking a gigantic fireball that consumes homes and kills 29 people.
August 14: Romania - Thirteen people are killed when a train smashes into a minibus on a level-crossing near Iasi in northeastern Romania.
Europe's worst rail disaster occurred in September 1917 near Modane, southern France, when a crowded troop train derailed and caught fire, killing at least 540 and possibly up to 800 men.