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Saturday, Jan 08, 2005

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14 die in Italy train crash

Firefighters carry an injured passenger from the wreckage of a train that collided head-on in thick fog with a freight train in Bolognina di Crevalore, near Bologna, northern Italy, on Friday. — AP

BOLOGNA, JAN. 7. A passenger train and a freight train collided in thick fog on Friday in northern Italy, killing 14 people and injuring dozens, rescue officials said.

The crash, on a line between Bologna and Verona, left several train cars in a wreck of buckled metal. At least one carriage was lifted high into the air by the force of the collision. The crash happened at 12.50 local time in a rural area of Bolognina di Crevalcore, 40 km north of Bologna.

Workers pulled bodies from the wreckage and lay them in body bags in a misty field. Eight bodies had been removed, said police in the nearby town of San Giovanni in Persiceto, who were overseeing the efforts.

Rescue officials in Rome said 14 people were killed and 80 injured, several of them seriously. The cause of the crash was not clear, but officials said there was thick fog at the time of the collision. The Transport Ministry said it was opening an investigation.

Ambulances rushed to the site, and a helicopter was sent from Rome, the ANSA news agency said.

Several seriously injured people were taken to a hospital in Bologna, and about 50 people were being treated on-site for minor injuries, the report said.

The Civil Defence Department said that around 100 people were on board the passenger train, which was a local train travelling south from Verona to Bologna. The freighter was headed north from Rome to San Zeno Falzano. — AP

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