October 20, 2003	Monday	Sha'aban 23, 1424

LONDON, Oct 19: Thirteen people were injured, two seriously, when a train derailed on Sunday on the London’s Underground rail system, emergency services said, the second such incident to hit the aging network in less than 48 hours.

The Northern Line train struck a wall before coming off the rails at the busy Camden Town station in north London on Sunday morning, trapping around 200 people below ground.

London Fire Brigade officer Darren Dovey said that six people were stretchered out of the station — which is packed at weekends with people visiting Camden’s famous market — while seven more were treated at the scene.

According to ambulance staff, one person had a head injury and another had a suspected broken leg, although neither was critically hurt.

London Underground managers, who immediately shut down the Northern Line, which carries more than 200 million passengers a year, said it appeared a set of wheels had come of a rail, throwing the last carriage completely off the track.

“Early indications are this was a problem with the track rather than the train,” said Mike Strzelecki, the network’s director of safety.

The accident followed an incident on Friday evening when an Underground train carrying 76 passengers skidded off the rails at low speed on the separate Piccadilly Line in west London.

No one was hurt, although passengers had to be walked to safety.—AFP