One dead, 27 hurt in Belgium train derailment

Police officers and officials stand next to a train after it derailed in Kessel-Lo, Leuven, on Feb. 18, 2017. One person died and 25 were injured in the accident. (Photo by SIEGRIED EVENS/Belga via AFP

Brussels, Belgium — One person died and 27 were injured, three seriously, when a train derailed Saturday shortly after leaving a station east of Brussels, officials said.

The train carrying 85 passengers derailed four minutes after leaving Louvain bound for the North Sea coast via the Belgian capital, the SNCB railway authorities said.

“Rescue workers confirm the death of one person, three seriously injured and 24 others hurt,” a Belgian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Louis Tobback, the mayor of Louvain, which is 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Brussels, said one person died and several other people were hurt badly, Belga news agency said.

Belga added that the person who died was not on board the train but gave no other details. The Belgian official who spoke to AFP could not say whether the deceased was on the train or not.

The cause of the derailment – which occurred shortly after 1:00 p.m. (1200 GMT, 8:00 p.m. PHT ) – was not immediately known and investigators were on the scene.

Pictures circulating on the Internet showed a train carriage turned on its side with emergency workers examining the scene.

Interior Minister Jan Jambon tweeted: “My thoughts go to the families and loved ones of the victims of the derailment in Louvain.”

In neighboring Luxembourg on Tuesday, the driver of a passenger train was killed after he ran a red light and collided with a freight train, officials said.

On June 5, 2016, three people were killed and nine injured when a fast-moving passenger train slammed into the back of a goods train on the same track in eastern Belgium.

In February 2010, two trains collided in a Brussels suburb, killing 18 people and injuring 95.