(Voorschoten) A high-speed passenger train slammed into construction equipment early Tuesday before derailing in the Netherlands near The Hague, killing at least one and injuring 30, emergency services said.
The train traveling from Leiden to The Hague hit a crane on the track near the village of Voorschoten around 3:30 a.m. A freight train also separately collided with the equipment, train operators said.
The force of the accident left a double-decker passenger car lying in a meadow and a second on its side on an embankment, while two cars remained on the tracks, AFP journalists found.
A fire broke out after the crash in one of the carriages, local media reported.
“First we heard an explosion, then a much louder one,” said Chris van Engelenburg, a 36-year-old resident.
“Then we heard people screaming,” he added.
The train was carrying around 50 people, Dutch authorities said.
The Dutch railways regularly provide overnight work on the main intercity lines.
“One person died and at least thirty others were injured. Eleven people were collected from local residents, while the seriously injured were taken to hospital,” the emergency services said.
“The freight train’s electric locomotive was badly damaged, but the driver has been seen by a doctor and is fine,” operator DB Cargo said.
This is a “terrible train accident”, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter, confirming that “unfortunately one person died and many people were injured”.
“My thoughts are with the loved ones and all the victims,” Mr. Rutte added.
It’s a “black day for the Dutch railways”, lamented the CEO of the Dutch rail network company ProRail, John Voppen.
Traffic on the busy route, used by trains from Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris, has been halted and will not resume until the afternoon, rail officials said.
The wreckage of the crane was visible further down the tracks, an AFP journalist noted.
Ambulances and a helicopter were deployed to take the seriously injured passengers to hospital. Some victims were treated in nearby homes, according to local media.
“The damage is huge, I haven’t seen anything like it. But luckily that doesn’t happen often in the Netherlands,” said ProRail spokesperson Jeroen Wienen.
“Several different investigations have now been launched and we want to know exactly what happened,” he added, noting that tracks and power lines had been damaged.
“Many are now in fear and uncertainty,” Dutch King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima said.
“We heard a huge bang and all of a sudden the lights went out,” an unidentified witness told local TV Omroep West.
“We couldn’t get off the train right away because there was no power,” the man added, visibly in shock. “We finally got out after what felt like hours.”
The worst train disaster in the Netherlands dates back to January 8, 1962 when two passenger trains collided at Harmelen, near the central city of Utrecht, killing 93 and injuring 52.
The accident had occurred in thick fog and the driver of one of the two trains had not seen a traffic sign.
In 2016, a train hit a construction crane in the center of the country, killing one and injuring six. In 2012, a train accident near Amsterdam also left one dead and 117 injured.
Tuesday’s accident comes after the almost simultaneous derailments on Friday in Switzerland, during a strong storm, of two regional trains (15 injured).
In Greece on February 28, a train disaster killed 57 people, deeply shocking the entire country.
