VOORSCHOTEN (Netherlands), April (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Dutch high-speed passenger train slammed into heavy construction equipment and derailed near The Hague early on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring 30, emergency services said.
The train travelling from Leiden to The Hague hit a crane on the track near the village of Voorschoten at around 3.30am local time, while a freight train separately collided with the equipment, rail operators said.
The force of the crash left a front double-decker passenger carriage lying in a meadow and a second on its side on an embankment, while two carriages remained on the tracks.
The train was carrying about 50 people when it crashed, Dutch authorities said. Dutch railways regularly run services during the night on key intercity lines.
“One person has died and at least 30 people have been injured. The seriously injured are being taken to hospital, while 11 are at homes of nearby residents,” Hollands Midden emergency services said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was a “terrible train accident” and confirmed that “unfortunately one person died and many people were injured”.
“My thoughts are with the relatives and with all the victims. I wish them all the best,” Rutte tweeted.
Dutch rail network company ProRail’s CEO John Voppen said that it was a “black day for the Dutch railways”.
Services on the busy link, used by trains running from Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris have been halted and will not resume until the afternoon, rail officials said.
Several ambulances and a helicopter were deployed to take seriously injured passengers to hospital.
“The damage is massive, I have not seen anything like this. But fortunately this does not happen often in the Netherlands,” ProRail spokesman Jeroen Wienen said.
“Several different investigations have now been started and we want to find out exactly what has happened.”
Both the tracks and the electricity lines had been damaged, he added.
Dutch King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima said they “deeply sympathise” with the victims, adding that “many are now in fear and uncertainty”.
The Netherlands’ worst train disaster happened on Jan 8, 1962, when two passenger trains crashed at Harmelen, near the central city of Utrecht, killing 93 people and injuring 52 others.
One person was killed and six others were injured when a train collided with a hydraulic crane in the central Netherlands in 2016.
Another person died and 117 others were injured in a collision near Amsterdam in April 2012 with reports later saying that a driver failed to respect a stop sign. — NNN-AGENCIES
