A three-week-old baby was among the passengers rescued from the Bristol-bound train that derailed on Sunday evening, injuring more than 40 people.
As more details emerged, police said that one of the train drivers involved in the collision in Salisbury, Wiltshire, suffered “life-changing injuries”. Thirteen passengers were taken to hospital by ambulance, British Transport Police said. All except the driver were treated for minor injuries.
Another 30 “walking wounded” attended a casualty centre.
The crash happened just before 7pm when it is understood the trains were approaching Fisherton Tunnel at a Y-shaped rail junction but on separate tracks. A rail industry source said the trains, one from South Western Railway and the other a Great Western Railway service, collided at the point where the tracks converged, causing one to derail.
A major incident was declared after the crash. Earlier reports that the GWR train struck an object were dismissed by police as were claims there had been a seven-minute delay between the derailment and the collision.
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Corinna Anderson, 51, from Derby, was on the SWR train. “I was thrown against the wall and there was a massive rumbling,” she said. “I’m a first aider, so I wanted to help. There was a lady in the carriage I was in and she was thrown off her seat and into the wall by the door.
“As I climbed off my train I saw the fireman cradling the baby in his arms and then I saw the mother get given the baby and they were escorted away for medical attention.”
Ninety-two passengers were moved from the train. Police said more than 50 ambulance and fire crew were in attendance. Two aircraft from the National Police Air Service were also deployed.
Locals out celebrating Halloween with children told of hearing a sound like an explosion when the accident happened. “My young ones started panicking thinking it was a bomb,” Tamar Vellacott, 25, who was walking about a half a mile from the scene, said.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) and the Office of Rail and Road remained at the scene and lines in the area are closed. Investigators were seen photographing the rails at the entrance to the tunnel.
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Travel disruption is expected to last for days. Most of the lines serving Salisbury are blocked and will remain closed until at least the end of Thursday.
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More than 100 services via Salisbury were cancelled yesterday. GWR services on the route linking Cardiff and Bristol with Portsmouth and Brighton are among those affected. Several SWR routes are also affected, including between London Waterloo and Exeter.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Langley said: “This will no doubt have been an incredibly frightening experience for all those involved and our thoughts are with them and their families.
“Specialist officers and detectives remain on scene and we are working closely alongside the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the Office of Rail and Road to establish exactly how these two trains came to collide.
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“We are keeping an open mind but at this early stage there has been nothing to suggest the train struck an object or that there was any significant delay between the trains colliding and then one derailing.”
Martin Frobisher, Network Rail’s safety and engineering director, said that it was too early to say what caused the accident and warned that there was a “lot of contradictory information” in the early stages of an investigation.
He said: “The RAIB are on site and doing a very thorough investigation. Once they have completed that work they’ll hand over to us and we’ll begin the recovery work for the rolling stock then begin the track repairs.”
