KNUDSHOVED: Six people were killed on Wednesday after debris apparently from a cargo train smashed into a passenger train in high winds on a bridge connecting two islands in Denmark, the rail operator and officials said. The passenger train appeared to have struck an empty truck trailer that had blown off a cargo train travelling in the opposite direction, as strong winds lashed the region.

The passenger train braked suddenly, survivors said. “An empty truck trailer on a carriage seems to have fallen off. It either hit the train, or the train hit it,” accident investigator Bo Haaning told Danish public broadcaster DR.

He said it was too early to know why or how the trailer fell off. “All I can say is that there is a trailer missing on the cargo train and there’s a trailer involved in the accident.”

Sixteen other passengers were hurt in the accident, but police said none had life-threatening injuries.

Police said the drivers of both trains were being questioned and video surveillance footage of the bridge was being examined to determine the cause of the accident. Divers were also searching the waters under the bridge for debris that might provide clues.

Images from the scene showed the cargo train standing still on the tracks, the tarpaulin covers of its carriages torn open in places to reveal jumbled cases of beer, while the metal tracks appeared mangled in places.

Rail operator DSB said six people died in the accident, which occurred around 7:30am (0630 GMT) on the Great Belt Bridge connecting the islands of Zealand, where Copenhagen is located, and Funen. There were 131 passengers and three crew on board.

Strong winds were reported across Scandinavia overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday, causing power outages, bridge closures and ferry cancellations. Water levels near Funen were 4.5 to 5.4 feet above normal on Wednesday, according to the Danish meteorological institute DMI.

The Great Belt link consists of a road suspension bridge and a railway tunnel between Zealand and the small island of Sprogo, with a bridge for both road and rail traffic between Sprogo and Funen. It is the third-longest suspension bridge in the world, measuring 1.6 kilometres along its main span, and the longest outside Asia. Wednesday’s accident was Denmark’s deadliest train incident since 1988 when eight people were killed and 72 injured when a train derailed at high speed in Soro, on Zealand.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2019