Switzerland train derailment: Carriage sent plunging into ravine as train carrying 200 hit by landslide

Police said multiple people had been injured in the incident

Police and rescue workers help after a passenger train derailed into a ravine near Tiefencastel in a mountainous region of southeastern Switzerland after encountering a mudslide on the tracks (Reuters )

A train carrying 200 people has been hit by a landslide in Switzerland, derailing at least three carriages and sending one over the edge of a ravine.

Police said that the evacuation using mountain rescue helicopters was ongoing, and that multiple people had suffered injuries. They were unable to confirm the exact nature or number of casualties.

The train had been travelling between Tiefencastel and Solis, southeast of Zurich, before it suffered what police described as the "serious" accident.

The incident followed heavy rain in the region, but the tracks were not close to a road.

Rega, the Swiss air rescue service, said it had two helicopters at the scene, which was also attended by ambulances, firefighters, Alpine Rescue and police.

Rescue services tend to a victim of the passenger train accident near Tiefencastel, Switzerland (EPA)

Train operator Rhaetische Bahn confirmed that the accident involved one of its trains. RhB runs a network of narrow-gauge rail routes across Switzerland's mountainous southeastern corner.

The accident comes just two days after a crash involving a train and a minibus killed three people in central Switzerland.