Switzerland train crash: Trains collide in Switzerland, injuring 35
| BERLIN
At least 35 people were injured, five of them seriously, in a head-on collision of two聽trains聽in western聽Switzerland聽late Monday, police said. One person had yet to be recovered from the wreckage.
The crash happened near the station of Granges-pres-Marnand shortly before 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on a regional line about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the capital, Bern. It came just days after 79 people were killed in a high-speed聽train聽derailment in Spain.
Photographs from the Swiss site showed the two regional聽trains聽locked together, partly lifted off the tracks by the force of the collision.
Police said several ambulances, fire engines and a helicopter were involved in the rescue operation. Rescuers had not yet been able to reach the driver's cabin of one of the聽trains, said the police in the canton (state) of Vaud in a statement.
News website 20min.ch quoted Patricia Claivaz of the Swiss rail company CFF as saying the trapped man was the driver. It was unclear if he was alive.
According to police, the five people who were seriously injured were taken to the hospital in the nearby city of Lausanne.
Earlier, Swiss media had cited police as saying 44 were injured, four of them seriously. It wasn't immediately clear why the injury figure had been lowered.
Switzerland's聽rail system is considered among the best and safest in the world. Accidents are rare, though three years ago the country's popular Glacier Express tourist聽train聽derailed in the Alps, killing one person and injuring 42.
