33 Feared Killed as 2 Norwegian Trains Collide

Two speeding passenger trains crashed head-on in central Norway on Tuesday, killing at least seven people and leaving 26 others missing and feared dead. Flames engulfed the wreckage of one train and blocked a rapid rescue.

Firefighters battled the blaze and thick smoke for nearly six hours before rescuers could reach some parts of the charred debris. No survivors were found.

The 26 missing “are probably not alive,” district Police Chief Magnar Lynum said at a news conference near Rena, about 85 miles northeast of Oslo. “The damage was so great that they could not have survived.”

The wreck could wind up as Norway’s worst railway accident in decades, surpassing the toll of 27 dead in a 1975 two-train crash.

Police said the other 67 people aboard the trains were accounted for by late Tuesday, at least 30 of them injured. The engineers on both trains were missing.

Police spokesman Per Erik Skjefstad said rescue efforts were suspended and would resume at daylight.

Earlier, police held out hope for the 26 missing, saying that some might have just walked away. However, by late Tuesday authorities said that possibility had been virtually ruled out.

The diesel-driven trains--one southbound and the other northbound--collided about 1:30 p.m. at the Aasta Station in Aamot township near Rena. A local train with 17 people aboard and a larger regional express carrying 83 people were both traveling about 55 mph around a curve when they hit head-on, the state railroad directorate said.

Authorities said they did not know why the trains were on the same track. The rail line had been due for a safety upgrade, a move that would have included equipment to automatically stop trains in such circumstances.

At least one locomotive overturned, and flames could be seen shooting from the windows of passenger cars.

“Passengers and baggage were strewn all across the middle corridor,” passenger Robert Ulriksen said.

It was the second serious public transport accident in Norway in little more than a month. On Nov. 26, 16 people drowned when a high-speed ferry ran aground and sank.