Schoolchildren injured in train crash in Swiss Alps

AT least 30 people, most of them schoolchildren, were injured yesterday when a train engine collided with carriages full of passengers, at a station in the Swiss Alpine village of Andermatt, police said.

“No one is in a critical condition,” a spokeswoman for the regional police in the Swiss canton of Uri said.

Police initially said 27 people had been hurt.

The accident happened shortly before midday as a train run by the Matterhorn-Gotthard rail company, made up of a locomotive and five carriages and carrying about 100 passengers, attempted a manoeuvre at Andermatt station.

The locomotive was supposed to move to a parallel track to move from the back of the train to the front, and allow the train to head back towards the Alpine resort of Disentis.

But rail company spokesman Jan Barwalde said something had gone wrong and the locomotive had slammed into the carriages.

“For some reason, the locomotive drove into the convoy it had just detached from, instead of moving onto the parallel track,” he said.

He said the locomotive had been travelling at a speed of only 15 to 20km/h and there appeared to be very little material damage.

Three rescue helicopters and about a dozen ambulances were sent to the scene, Swiss media reported.

The regional police and the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board have opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the accident.