Freight train derails in Italy, kills 12, burns 50

VIAREGGIO, Italy (AP) — A freight train derailed and plowed into houses in a small Italian town, setting off an explosion and fire that killed at least 12 people — many as they slept in their homes — and injured at least 50, officials said Tuesday.

The 14-car train was traveling from the northern city of La Spezia to Pisa when a rear car derailed and crashed into a residential neighborhood beside the train station in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio just before midnight Monday.

A train car filled with liquefied natural gas exploded, collapsing five buildings and setting fire to a vast area. Homes crumbled or burned, killing residents as they slept.

The exact death toll was unclear as hundreds of rescuers searched through the rubble for survivors.

Guido Bertolaso, the chief of the Civil Protection Department, told reporters at the scene that 12 people had been killed, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies said. He said four people were missing.

Gennaro Tornatore, a spokesman for the firefighters, said 15 people had died, while an official with the hospital in Viareggio, Stefano Pasquinucci, said the death toll stood at 16.

Many of the injured suffered severe burns.

“We saw a ball of fire rising up to the sky,” said witness Gianfranco Bini, who lives in a building overlooking the station. “We heard three big rumbles, like bombs. It looked like war had broken out.”

His son, Gianni Bini, said he saw a truck driver running away on fire.

“This truck was passing by … when it was hit by the heat wave and I saw the driver ablaze, getting off and walking away,” he said.

Videos uploaded onto YouTube showed a huge plume of fire and smoke towering above Viareggio’s low houses. An inferno raged through the night, consuming buildings and cars, while the sound of sirens and explosions pierced the air. TV images showed residents, their bodies blackened by the smoke, being carried away on stretchers.

Bertolaso called the accident one of Italy’s worst railway tragedies. Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who was in Naples for a businessmen meeting, said he would go to Viareggio later Tuesday to take control of the situation.

It was the deadliest train accident since January 2005, when 17 people were killed in a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train. The collision occurred in thick fog on a single track line near Bologna in northern Italy, and led to calls for improved train safety.

In Monday’s overnight derailment, 10 buildings and dozens of cars were at least partially burned, firefighters said.

Officials said the death toll might increase as 300 firefighters and other rescue teams searched through the rubble.

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