Italy train crash leaves at least 20 dead

Twenty people have been killed and dozens more hurt in a head-on collision involving two passenger trains in southern Italy, officials say. The two trains were on a single-track line at the time of the crash, between the coastal towns of Bari and Barletta. Emergency services are trying to free passengers from the wrecked carriages near the town of Andria.
"I think there are many dead," local police chief Riccardo Zingaro told Rai TV.
Some of the carriages were extensively damaged, he said. There were fears the number of deaths could rise still further. It was unclear what led to the collision, which happened in good weather at 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT) in the southern region of Apulia. A local prosecutor in nearby Trani said it was too early to speculate on the cause, although human error was likely to have been a factor. Italian reports said one of the trains had come from Andria, and the other from Corato, a short distance to the south-east.

Both were travelling at high speed. Corato Mayor Massimo Mazzilli said the damage was so extensive it was as if a plane had crashed.
The line, managed by Ferrotramviaria, is used by thousands of people daily on about 200 trains. Work is under way to make it a double-track line.
Earlier this year, 11 people died on a single track in southern Germany when two trains collided head-on at Bad Aibling near the Austrian border. Investigators said a signal controller had mistakenly allowed both trains to use the line, disabling an automatic safety system.

Source: BBC