Three dead as train is derailed after heavy rain storms

AN INVESTIGATION was under way last night to establish the cause of a rail crash near Aberdeen in Scotland which left three people dead.

The ScotRail service to Glasgow Central is thought to have encountered two landslides on the track following a night of torrential rain.

When the driver saw the first landslide it is believed he managed to stop in time to avoid a collision.

It was when he was returning to Aberdeen after finding the track blocked that he hit a second “at speed”, a rail industry source said. The driver and a conductor are among the dead.

The train service from Aberdeen was allowed to depart as planned yesterday morning despite widespread cancellations to rail services across Scotland. Whether this was a breach of health-and-safety laws will form a key line of inquiry in what will be a lengthy investigation process.

Aerial pictures showed a scene of devastation. Three carriages had completely derailed, with one completely burned out. One had careered down a steep embankment.

British Transport Police said their officers were called to the scene at 9.43am, with the train derailing only 20 miles south of Aberdeen, the city from which it had originally left three hours earlier.

Network Rail warned of disruption to services across Scotland yesterday. At 9.49am, minutes after police were dispatched to the site, it tweeted from its official account a video of tracks submerged in water at Carmont, close to the site of the accident, and said there had been “reports of a landslip”.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for a probe into the impact of “substantial rainfall on vulnerable infrastructure”. (© Daily Telegraph)