Ninety ambulances rolled to the scene of a train crash in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires on Friday. At least 60 people were injured when a seven-car passenger train collided with a locomotive and an empty train car, local authorities said. They did not say how serious the injuries were.
According to Bloomberg, the train derailed in downtown Buenos Aires. Footage from television and drones showed the trains head-to-head on an overpass, the first car of the passenger train off the rails and damaged.
Firefighters, police and ambulances helped evacuate people and take the injured to hospitals. Trenes Argentinos, the state-run operator, said the crash happened at 10:31 a.m. (1331 GMT).
Triage on the tracks
Alberto Crescenti, who heads the local emergency medical system SAME, told Reuters that 90 passengers were transferred and attended to, and that 30 of them were classed as code red, the most serious category. Two were taken by helicopter to Santojanni hospital with head and thorax trauma. Crescenti said they were lucid but were flown first as a precaution. Altogether, his teams treated about 100 passengers.
Clarin reported at least 60 injured, half of them moved to area hospitals. No deaths were reported. City firefighters said nobody was trapped on the trains, and passengers who were not hurt were led out along the tracks.
What caused the collision is unclear. Trenes Argentinos said an investigation would be opened. Train traffic on the San Martin line was interrupted, the Minister of Transport announced.
The disruption landed one day after almost all transport services in the country, trains included, were suspended during a 24-hour strike organized in protest against the government.
