3 dead, 9 hospitalized in night train wreck

A late-night passenger train slammed into the rear of a halted freight train in eastern Belgium, killing three people and injuring at least nine others, authorities said on Monday.

Two cars from the train derailed and tumbled onto their side when it slammed into the freight train around 11 pm on Sunday at a speed of 90 km/h on the banks of the Meuse river near Liege, RTL broadcasting said.

Nine people were hospitalized, some in critical condition, and the death toll could rise, said Francis Dejon, mayor of the commune of St. Georges-sur-Meuse.

Twenty-seven other passengers were examined and treated at the scene as a result of the accident.

"The passenger train is really in a lamentable state," Dejon said. "We've very lucky there weren't more victims."

It took rescuers up to three hours to free people from the wreckage of the train, which carried around 40 people when it crashed at Hermalle-sous-Huy while traveling between the city of Mouscron and the village of Liers.

"The SNCB will participate closely in the investigation," Belgium's national railway operator said in a statement. Its services have been seriously affected by a recent wave of strikes, especially in French-speaking parts of the country.

A spokesman for Infrabel, a separate company that oversees Belgium's rail infrastructure, said installations in the area where the wreck occurred "were hit by lightning" earlier on Sunday.

SNCB's Twitter account on Sunday reported "a signals disruption" on the rail line about an hour and a half before the wreck occurred, but said the problem had been solved and normal train service restored.

(China Daily 06/07/2016 page12)