BUENOS AIRES: A passenger train collided with a maintenance train in Buenos Aires on Friday, sending nearly 60 people to hospitals in the Argentine capital, including two in serious condition with head injuries, officials said.
The accident happened around 10:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) on the outskirts of Palermo when a seven-car passenger train collided with a maintenance train on the tracks of a railway bridge.
“The locomotive and the first passenger car derailed,” state railway company Trenes Argentinos (TA) said in a statement.
Emergency authorities said 30 people were taken to hospitals after the crash, but city health officials updated that number to 57 by the end of the day.
The two seriously injured victims suffered head injuries and were airlifted to hospitals, emergency services official Alberto Crescenti said.
Most of the other victims had been released by Friday evening, he added.
News photos showed a train car torn apart at one end and leaning against the metal railing of a railroad bridge. It was not clear whether it was a car of a passenger or maintenance train.
The impact “was very strong,” a passenger in the last car told the TN news channel. “One person was thrown against the door, many people were thrown to the ground.
“It’s a miracle we’re alive,” another passenger exclaimed as he leaned out the window and filmed the crash scene in footage broadcast on several stations.
Transport Minister Franco Mogetta said there were “several hypotheses” about what happened, including whether something went wrong with the signaling system.
