Death toll rises in Italy train explosion (Roundup)

Jul 1, 2009, 15:49 GMT

Rome - Three more victims of Italy's freight train crash died Wednesday, bringing the death toll for the accident to 17.

The incident occurred when the train derailed, crashed and exploded in the Tuscan port city Viareggio just after midnight on Monday.

A three-year-old girl died Wednesday in a Rome hospital where she had been brought for treatment following the accident, whilst a two- year-old boy died in a hospital in Florence.

Both children had suffered burns over 90 per cent of their bodies, the ANSA news agency reported.

A third victim, a man whose identity could not be immediately established, died in a hospital near Viareggio, news reports said on Wednesday afternoon.

Transport Minister Altero Matteoli said nearly 30 people, 'many of them in a very serious condition,' are still being treated for their injuries.

First investigations suggest that one of the train's 14 tanker-cars veered off the rails after breaking a wheel axle, dragging four other cars with it, officials said.

The liquid petroleum gas which poured out of one or more wagons then ignited, triggering a blast which destroyed several residential buildings near Viareggio's railway station.

Traces of rust had been found on the broken axle, Matteoli said reporting to parliament on the accident.

GATX, the US company owning the tanker-wagons told the German Press Agency dpa, the vehicle had been closely inspected in Italy in March.

Johannes Mansbart, the chief executive of GATX's European branch headquartered in Austria, said there had been a thorough test at a licensed Italian workshop, including of the undercarriage and tank.

'The regulations are being followed meticulously,' he told dpa.

So far, GATX had not received any official accident report, said Mansbart, who did not want to speculate on the cause of the crash.

The company owns 20,000 tanker wagons in Europe.