Italy: The crash occurred just before 1 p.m., close to the small station of Crevalcore, near Bologna, when an inter-regional train travelling from Verona to Bologna and carrying more than 100 passengers ran head first into a parked goods train on a one-track section of the line.Italian rescue workers were last night preparing to work through the night in an attempt to find survivors of a head-on train collision near Bologna, which thus far has claimed the lives of 15 people but in which the death toll seems likely to increase.
So violent was the impact of the crash that one passenger carriage was left pointing skywards as it rested on the mangled remains of another carriage.
Rescue work was hampered by the fact that the crash happened in the countryside, making it difficult for ambulances and heavy equipment to get near the crash scene. Several ambulances parked close to the temporary field hospital had to be towed out of the mud by the tractors of local farmers.
Medics treated the injured on the roofs of the tangled carriages.
For the time being, no obvious reason for the crash has emerged. Although there was heavy fog in the area, with visibility reduced to 150 feet, such conditions are an everyday winter reality in the zone.
Furthermore, trains regularly use Crevalcore as a "passing point," at which one train is obliged to pull into a side-track in order to let the oncoming train pass.
Speaking to reporters at the crash scene, Bologna-based investigating magistrate Mr Enrico Cieri said damage to the track points would suggest that one of the trains had not obeyed the track signals, adding: "One of the track points has been damaged, you've all seen it. That obviously means that one of the two trains did not respect the signals for this station. But we have to understand just why".
Rail workers who witnessed the crash reported that the goods train had come to a halt and the passenger train crashed into it at full speed.
Survivors of the crash confirmed that version of events, with many of them claiming their train had not braked at all prior to impact.
Although many figures in public life expressed their solidarity to relatives of the victims, the crash also provoked immediate and bitter polemics, with politicians from both the right and left claiming that the crash underlined the chronic need for a thorough modernisation of the Italian railway system.
Mr Renato Golini, president of the Crevalcore commuter association, pointed out that although plans for the modernisation of the line, making it two-lane track rather than a one-lane track, had been agreed as far back as 1986, work on the track has only recently resumed.
That point was echoed by the president of the Veneto region, Mr Giancarlo Galan, who commented: "In a couple of years' time, the entire Verona-Bologna line will be two track, given that contracts have been awarded and work begun. That only serves to heighten our sense of indignation and pain".
The centre-left opposition last night called on transport minister Mr Pietro Lunardi to address parliament regarding the crash. Both the Italian railway authority, TrenItalia, and the Bologna public prosecutor's office have opened investigations into the crash.