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Six killed in train crash
One carriage flipped over onto two platforms
Six people have died after a passenger train travelling from London to Norfolk crashed at Potters Bar railway station in Hertfordshire.
Ambulance service officials say 15 more casualties have life-threatening or serious injuries. There are up to 76 walking wounded.
Emergency information
0845 944 1551
The train was the 1245 WAGN service from King's Cross, London, to King's Lynn in Norfolk.
Railtrack confirmed that three of the train's four carriages derailed in the accident which happened just befor 1300BST.
The rear carriage flipped across two platforms and became wedged under the canopy of the station roof.
A bridge over a road was damaged and later partly collapsed.
The train was not due to stop at Potters Bar and it is thought it was travelling at up to 100 mph.
Chief Superintendent Andy Wright, who is leading the rescue effort compared the devastation at the scene with the Hatfield crash two years ago, in which four people died.
He said all the dead and most seriously injured had been in the rear carriage.
Eyewitness John Fuller described the carriage being "spread-eagled" across the tracks.
The carriage that is underneath the station's canopy is totally destroyed - its metal is twisted
Paul Davies
Eyewitness
"It looks like a bomb explosion - there's very bad damage," he said.
The driver of the West Anglia Great Northern train Andy Gibson, from London, was uninjured and said he "felt the train give way from the rear of the train".
A spokesman for his union Aslef told the BBC he felt the train - which had 151 people on board - had passed over something.
Accident investigators at the scene have marked off a section of track under blue tarpaulin.
The Queen was said to be "shocked" to learn of the crash.
'Big impact'
Eyewitness Paul Davies said he could see the station from the window of his office.
"The carriage that is underneath the station's canopy is totally destroyed.
"Its metal is twisted.
The train shuddered and seemed to catapult
Jane McDonald, Passenger
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"It appears to have flipped and rolled and taken the canopy out.
"It's upright but wedged under the station.
"When it happened all the computers in my office shook - it was obviously a big impact."
The injured are being ferried to Barnet General Hospital, while Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Welwyn Garden City and Watford General are on standby.
A spokeswoman for Barnet hospital said injuries ranged from open fractures to head and chest injuries.
Investigation
Transport secretary Stephen Byers ordered an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive.
"All of our thoughts must be with the families and friends of those who have been killed or injured today in this tragic accident," he said.
Debris from the bridge hit by the train fell onto vehicles
Local resident Martin Fricker told BBC News 24 he was able to see three "unscathed" train carriages on the track at least 150 yards from the end of the station platform.
Andrew Edwards, a taxi driver whose office is in the train station, said parts of the bridge at the station had been destroyed.
Another man, Sam Irving, had been walking up a ramp to the station platforms when he heard a bang and debris started to fall down around him.
Recent rail disasters
Great Heck
28 Feb 2001
Hatfield
17 Oct 2000
Ladbroke Grove
5 Oct 1999
Southall
19 Sep 1997
Watford Junction
8 Aug 1996
Clapham Junction
12 Dec 1988
He helped ambulance crews in treating the injured, who he said included people with "broken limbs and terrible wounds".
Alun Ticehurst told BBC News Online: "I and others were down on the tracks helping to treat the injured."
Local businessman Luciano Capaldo, 39, said the scene was impossible to imagine.
He said: "There was lady, still alive trapped under the debris, the scene was like a funeral, everyone was whispering and sombre."
Potters Bar station is only one stop down the line from Hatfield where four people were killed in a train crash two years ago.
Louise Christian, the solicitor acting for the victims of the Southall and Ladbroke Grove disasters, called for an immediate public inquiry into Thursday's tragedy and the Hatfield crash.
My dad used to travel that line daily, same fucking line, FUCK YOU railtrack
I was just getting worked up over the other thread. But isn't it an accident when somebody's kid shoots his friend?
