At least six people have been killed in a train accident on a bridge in Denmark that links the islands of Zealand and Fyn, train operator DSB said.
A severe storm has made it difficult for emergency services to reach the train, which was halted on the Great Belt fixed link between Denmark’s two major islands. The bridge was closed to both trains and vehicles, police said.
“This morning’s tragic accident on the Great Belt Bridge with many killed and wounded has shaken us all,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen tweeted. “Ordinary Danes on their way to work or on the way home from Christmas holidays have had their lives shattered.”
A preliminary investigation by the Danish Accident Investigation Board showed a trailer had blown off a freight wagon onto the oncoming tracks, a spokesman said.
“There was a very, very loud bang and then the train stopped,” a witness, who had been onboard the train with his daughter, told broadcaster TV2.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven blamed the weather.
“Terrible train accident on the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark as a result of the storm Alfrida. Our thoughts are with the injured and with the families and relatives of the dead,” he wrote on Twitter.
TV footage showed a severely damaged freight trailer adorned with the logo of Danish beer maker Carlsberg. Crates of beer could be seen inside.
A train operated by DB Cargo, the logistics arm of Germany’s Deutsche Bahn that carries goods to Copenhagen from Carlsberg’s Fredericia brewery, was involved in the accident, a Carlsberg spokesman said.
DB Cargo was on site and “doing its utmost to support the investigation,” Deutsche Bahn said in a statement. A spokesman said the trailers were fastened to the railcars with metal rods, a system in use across Europe.
Danish rail operator Banedanmark said it didn’t expect rail traffic by to resume before Jan. 3.
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