Heavy rain blamed after Swiss train derails

Authorities in eastern Switzerland blamed several weeks of heavy rain for a landslide which caused the partial derailment of passenger train on Wednesday.

Eleven people were injured, five seriously, when three carriages came off the tracks in a valley between St Moritz and Chur.

The train had 140 people on board including several tourists.

Passengers described how the train emerged from a tunnel and straight into the landslide.

“We went to the back of the carriage, opened the door and had to climb out onto the gravel. We realised that in between the engine and our carriage there was a carriage missing. We realised that one carriage lay down there,” said Swiss national Max Lienert.

“People fell over, things fell on the train. We were hoping not to fall down. Three or four metres further and we would also have toppled. We were lucky,” added passenger Hubert Walti.

At one point, a dive team was put on standby
amid fears that another carriage had fallen into a nearby river.

Officials said if trees hadn’t prevented one of the carriages from slipping further, the accident could have been much worse.