ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- Two crowded express trains collided Friday evening in suburban Zurich, causing one car to overturn and derailing two more, officials said. At least one person was killed and 32 injured.
Dr. Meinrad Lienert of city rescue services told reporters that a woman died and eight people, including a child, were seriously injured. The remaining injuries were moderate to light, Lienert said.
Hans Mundwiler, chief of the Zurich fire department, said the overturned passenger car landed on a 16,000-volt power line. ``It's a wonder that no one was electrocuted.''
He said the car was perched precariously on an overpass. Some victims were trapped inside and had to be cut free, and were taken by ladders from the windows to the street below.
``The rescue work is very difficult,'' police spokesman Marco Cortesi said.
More than 200 emergency workers worked at the scene of the crash.
The crash was at an important junction outside the station in Oerlikon, near the Zurich airport. Rail traffic throughout the region was disrupted.
Cortesi declined to identify any victims, but said the assumption was that many of them were Germans because the trains were traveling between Zurich and the German border area.
Florian Staehli, who was working at a computer firm near the site, said he heard the accident. ``There was a huge crash and a large cloud of dust.''
``Many of the passengers climbed out of the windows,'' Staehli said.
The collision occurred shortly before 6 p.m. at a crossing. One of the trains was traveling from Zurich to Constance, over the border in Germany, and the other was coming from Schaffhausen, near Constance in northern Switzerland, officials said.
