Five killed in Dutch train crash

HOOFDDORP (AP) - Rescue workers carry out a body from the wreckage of a train that was derailed in an Amsterdam suburb yesterday. Five bodies have been recovered from the packed commuter train, which skidded off the rails and spun into trees, police said.

Thirty-three people were injured in the early-morning accident, six of them seriously, said a police spokesman, Jan van der Weijden. Heavy lifting equipment righted an overturned carriage that was sliced open where it collided with the trees, he said.

A spokesman for Dutch Railways said a train was derailed at or near the same spot on Saturday, but could not say whether the two incidents were related. No injuries were reported in the accident on Saturday.

Many passengers suffered broken bones or concussion as they were flung through the carriage yesterday, Mr van der Weijden said. Some were catapulted out of smashed windows, while others were trapped and had to be cut free by rescue teams. Construction workers at a nearby site were first to the scene, and they built an emergency bridge over a canal to allow rescue teams access to the derailed carriages Photograph: Reuter

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