Swiss train crash kills passenger

  • 14 years ago

Switzerland's Glacier Express tourist train has derailed, killing one person and injuring 42 others.

Police said six of the injured were in serious condition. Most of the passengers were Japanese tourists, according to police.

The Glacier Express - dubbed the "slowest express train in the world" - is known as much for its majestic mountain climbs as for its pedestrian 18-miles-per-hour average speed.

Authorities said two of the train cars drove off the tracks and a third tipped over, but the cause of the accident was unknown. The three cars were at the back of the train.

The derailment took place near the town of Fiesch and the mouth of the Aletsch glacier, Europe's largest icemass.

The 80-year-old Glacier Express runs several times a day all year round, carrying some 250,000 passengers a year.

The accident was the country's worst rail mishap since 2006, when three men died after a runaway train travelled for miles without brakes before crashing into another train.