At least 13 people were killed when a freight train derailed and set off an explosion and fire in a small Italian town, officials said today.
More than 50 people were injured, many seriously, in the crash in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio shortly before midnight.
The rear of the train crashed into homes beside the railway station and a car filled with liquefied natural gas exploded, causing at least two buildings to collapse and setting fire to a vast area.
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Some 300 firefighters were digging through the rubble of collapsed or burned homes looking for casualties, amid fears that there could be more victims.
"We saw a ball of fire rising up to the sky," said witness Gianfranco Bini, who lives in a building overlooking the station. "We heard three big rumbles, like bombs. It looked like war had broken out."
Some of the victims, including a child, were killed in their homes by the building collapses or the fire, said Raffaele Gargiulo, a police spokesman in the nearby city of Lucca, which is in charge of the smaller town of Viareggio.