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Run-away train leaves three dead in Oslo: police

25 March 2010 03:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A freight train hurtling out of control left at least three people dead on Wednesday after it smashed into a building then plunged into a fjord in Oslo, police said, APA reports quoting AFP.
"Three people have been confirmed dead and three others were seriously injured and hospitalised, and another person was slightly injured," an Oslo police spokeswoman told AFP.
One person was also missing, police said.
Norwegian media said the train of 16 empty wagons with no locomotive had sped wildly down hill for several kilometres (miles) before ramming into the trackside building in an industrial part of the Norwegian capital.
The structure, an open-sided checking station where several people had been working, collapsed and part of the train fell into the fjord.
Around a dozen ambulances, several helicopters and coastguard boats with divers on board were sent to the scene, media reported.
A spokesperson for train owner Cargonet said the train had been parked in a commercial area several kilometres away without a locomotive and that it remained unclear how it had started rolling.
Police also said in a statement that "it is too early to say anything about what caused the accident."
Norwegian television showed images of rescue personnel in fluorescent jump suits scrambling amid the wreckage with stretchers, as helicopters circled above.
A number of police boats were also combing the edge of the Oslo fjord in search of people who might have been flung into the water by the crash.
Television images also showed the checking station, where trains stop to register their cargoes, with its roof caved in.
"I saw the train speeding towards us much too fast," Vegard Halveg, who was working at the scene, told the VG tabloid’s website.
"Several wagons derailed. One of them derailed very violently, turning over and ramming into a truck parked on the platform," he added.