Two people died and five others were injured today when a passenger express train plowed into two freight trains that had derailed earlier in the Italian Alps, the Italian railway company said.
International train traffic across the Brenner pass near where the collision happened was disrupted, and the FS rail company did not expect regular traffic to resume before the weekend.
The two drivers of the freight trains were confirmed dead.
The Naples-Rome-Munich Eurocity express carried around 50 passengers, mostly in cars to the rear, when the collision happened at Colle Isarco, south of Italy's border with Austria.
One of the freight trains carried gas containers but they did not explode.
The railway company said the two freight trains collided at the Colle Isarco train station around 3 a.m. Irish time.
In the incident, a Bologna-bound freight train smashed into a train that had stopped at Colle Isarco, instantly killing both drivers.
The Naples-Munich express then crashed into train debris.
Passengers later continued their journey by bus.
AFP