MATUKIO NA JAMII BLOG

A busy commuter train has crashed at a Buenos Aires station, killing at least 49 commuters and injuring more than 500 others.

The train came in too fast and hit a barrier at the end of the platform at about 20km per hour, smashing the front of the engine and destroying the coaches behind it, Juan Schiavi, Argentina's transportation secretary, said at the Once station on Wednesday.

"It was a very serious accident," Schiavi told a news conference. "Cars piled up on top of each other and one them went six metres inside another car."

Monica Yanakiev, a journalist at the scene of the train crash, told Al Jazeera, that there were between 30 and 60 people still trapped in the train, with ambulances filling the streets.

"The last report, which has not been confirmed yet, is that a seven-year-old boy apparently died in the crash," she said. "There are three or four hospitals that are crowded with victims" of the accident that occured during the morning rush hour.

The most damage occurred in the first coach, where passengers make space for bicycles. Survivors told the TeleNoticias television channel that many people were injured by metal and glass.

Passengers said windows exploded as the tops of train cars separated from their floors. The trains are usually packed with people standing between the seats, and many were thrown into each other and to the floor by the force of the crash.

"People started to break windows and get out however they could." one survivor said.

"Then I saw the engine destroyed and the train driver trapped among the steel. There were a lot of people hurt, a lot of kids, elderly."

Aljazeera news