The driver of the InterCity express which crashed yesterday in west London, killing six passengers, was released on police bail early today after being arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
The man, who has not been named by police, was detained after he voluntarily attended Southall police station just before 7 p.m. A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: "He is due to return to this police station at mid-day on October 31st." The six people died in the crash in west express driver earlier had passed a breathalyser test for alcohol.
Britain's Health and Safety Commission has confirmed it will hold a full public inquiry into the rail crash in which 170 other passengers were injured, 13 of them critically.
Mr John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, approved the move as the British public witnessed scenes of carnage which evoked memories of the Clapham Junction rail crash in 1988, and sparked renewed concerns as to whether passenger safety is being compromised by underfunding of the rail service.
Separate inquiries by Railtrack (which owns signalling and track), Great Western Railways and British Transport Police were also under way as investigators began the painstaking task of sifting the wreckage of the high-speed 10.32 a.m. Swansea-to-Paddington train which collided with a freight train that was crossing the track just east of Southall station, in the west of the city.
Queen Elizabeth and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, sent their condolences and sympathy to the families of those who died and were injured.
A central concern of the public inquiry will be to establish whether a computerised safety system was in operation on the Swansea-Paddington train, which was packed yesterday with people who had participated by voting, campaigning in or reporting on the Welsh referendum.
The company was unable to say immediately whether the Great Western had the benefit of the £700 million system, which automatically prevents a driver overriding a red signal, and which had undergone trials over the last four years on the track where yesterday's collision took place.
The Swansea train, with its eight coaches, roared into the eighth of the 20 wagons of the empty goods train at 1.20 p.m. Passengers described their terror and disbelief at the massive explosion which ensued, the sound of metal crunching as their carriages overturned, and the agony of the ensuing hours it took the emergency services to release the injured from the wreckage.
Mr Andy Mair said: "It was total carnage. The first three carriages were totally wrecked." Mr Hywel Williams, a special adviser to the former Tory leadership candidate, Mr John Redwood, described the "eerie silence and amazing calm" in his carriage as it tilted at a 45 angle. Mr Nick Sutton said: "As I walked off the train I saw a body lying by the side of the tracks. No one was touching it. His shirt was ripped and there was blood all over him."
As the demand for answers intensified last night, the Chief Executive of Railtrack, Mr John Edmonds, dismissed as "totally untrue" suggestions that his company was operating in less than perfect safety conditions as a result of underfunding. He told Channel 4 News "not a single indicator would support that conclusion." And he stated: "I am content professionally that we have a proper system of maintenance and of investment."
Last night six people were still in hospital. The other victims, totalling more than 150, were described as "walking wounded".