Death toll in Danish train crash rises to eight

Death toll in Danish train crash rises to eight as five women and three men are confirmed to have been killed

  • Accident occurred at around 8am on Wednesday as stormy weather hit the Storebaelt – or Great Belt – Bridge
  • Cargo toppling from a freight train is suspected to have caused the crash on the bridge linking two islands
  • Images show severe damage to the interior of the passenger train, in which eight died and 14 were injured
  • The Danish PM said ordinary Danes on their way to work or heading home ‘have had their lives smashed’

The death toll in the Danish train crash has risen to eight as two more are confirmed dead in the worst accident of its kind in the country for more than 30 years.

A police spokesman confirmed that initial investigations which found six were killed on the Great Belt Bridge on Wednesday morning had been hampered by the stormy weather and devastation within the passenger train.

Police have been investigating whether the crash at around 8am on the Storebaelt, or Great Belt, Bridge was caused by beer crates toppling from a freight train coming in the opposite direction as stormy weather battered the area. 

A teenage survivor of the smash described clambering over dead bodies to save injured passengers after cargo toppled from a Carlsberg freight train into a passenger train. 

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Aftermath: workers on the Great Belt Bridge in Nyborg, Denmark, examine the badly damaged passenger train which appears to have parts of the freight train caught in its mangled metalwork

Damaged Carlsberg freight containers with their tarpaulins ripped and beer crates stacked precariously inside them

A map showing where the freight train came to a halt after it crashed with the passenger train on the Great Belt Bridge

Damage can be seen to the passenger train. Survivors said it braked sharply after a huge ‘bang’ and reported sparks flying

The devastated interior of the passenger train with electrics and fittings dangling from the ceiling and rough seas visible through the window 

Police Commissioner Arne Gram holds a news conference on the train accident on the Great Belt Bridge at the Police Court in Odense on Thursday morning, as a police spokesman confirmed the death toll had risen to eight


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A police spokesman confirmed on Thursday: ‘Our investigation shows that there was a further two killed in the train.’

The number includes five women and three men. 

Local media reported that a trailer fell from one of the freight train’s carriages and survivors said the passenger train braked suddenly.

As well as the eight dead, 14 people were injured in the accident, said police, and the passenger train had taken ‘considerable damage’.

Survivor Simon Voldsgaard Tøndering, 19, told Politiken: ‘We had to climb over the dead people lying on the floor under all the debris to get to injured people and help them.’ 

The teenage survivor, who was on his way to work, continued: ‘Suddenly, the train started properly shaking. I looked out the window and saw sparks flying from the side of the train.

‘Then all the windows started breaking and shards were flying over us and the panels in the ceilings were torn off. Then everything went black.’ 

The damaged interior of the passenger train after windows shattered and ceiling panels were torn off during the collision

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    Officials examine the damage to the freight train on the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark on Wednesday after the fatal accident

    Passengers who were not injured arrive at Nyborg Sports Hall where a temporary crisis centre was dealing with crash victims

    An official among the wreckage of the freight train whose carriages were ripped open to reveal stacked Carlsberg beer crates

    Survivors arrive at the sports hall where emergency teams organised an evacuation point for those not uninjured in the crash 

    The empty passenger train lies empty on the bridge with extensive damage to the interior clearly visible through the windows

    Debris can be seen on the tracks after the fatal collision which claimed eight lives and caused injuries to 14 other passengers

    The line of damaged containers are surrounded by emergency crews who cordoned off the surrounding area

    The train was heading from Odense on the island of Funen to the capital, Copenhagen, on the island of Zealand. 

    Stormy weather meant the 11-mile bridge was closed to cars overnight but trains were still permitted to cross despite the high winds. 

    Jesper Nielsen, another passenger, told TV2 the train ‘was out on the bridge when there was a huge “bang” … and very quickly thereafter, the train braked.’

    Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said: ‘Ordinary Danes on their way to work or heading home from the Christmas holidays have had their lives smashed.’

    Images showed the freight train with the tarpaulin that covered carriages torn in pieces.  

    There were 131 passengers and three employees aboard the train, according to DR. 

    Shattered glass inside the passenger train after the incident on the bridge in Nyborg, Denmark

    Debris is strewn across the tracks where the authorities have put out cones to mark out the area of their investigation

    Danish rail operator DSB confirmed that eight people had been killed after the passenger train was forced to brake suddenly by objects flying off the freight train

    A policeman walks across a closed road under the rail line after the accident on the Great Belt Bridge involving two trains

    Police set up an evacuation centre in a nearby sports centre in Nyborg to shelter passengers.

    Bo Haaning of the Danish Accident Investigation Board was quoted as saying it could take months before the cause of the accident could be determined. 

    The Storebaelt or Great Belt Bridge is part of a bridge and tunnel link between the Danish islands. 

    Vehicles were backed up for miles after the police closed the Great Belt Bridge this morning following the fatal crash

    Crisis team members arrive at Nyborg’s Sports hall to aid those who were aboard the passenger train

    The rough seas beneath the Storebaelt bridge where stormy weather may have caused cargo to come loose from the Carlsberg freight train

    The tarpaulin covering the side of one of the freight train containers has been shredded and beer crates can be seen inside

    The bent metal of the freight train after the crash on Wednesday morning during high winds on the Storebaelt bridge

    A policeman stands on the cordoned off road beneath the bridge where the cargo train lies in ruins after the crash

    Thousands of the commuters make the journey across the bridge everyday.

    The government agency responsible for Danish railways said on Twitter that no further trains would cross the Storebaelt link on Wednesday, but it was aiming to allow train crossings to resume Thursday.

    In 1988, eight people were killed and 72 injured when a train derailed because of high speed near Soroe, west of Copenhagen.

    Denmark’s worst train accident occurred in 1919, when an express train collided with a stopped train in Copenhagen due to a dispatcher error. A total of 40 people were killed and some 60 were injured.

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