GLENDALE, California, Jan 26 (AFP) - At least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured Wednesday when two passenger trains collided after one of them hit a car left on the lines by a suicidal man, police said.
The driver drove his Jeep onto the tracks in a crowded Los Angeles suburb and began waiting for a train to hit him, but he changed his mind at the last minute and jumped out, leaving carnage in his wake.
"At this moment we have 10 fatalities so far and well over 100 injured," Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams told reporters. "We have a homicide investigation underway.
"What we have here is an individual who is suicidal, who took his vehicle into an area that is really not intended for vehicles and then changed his mind, exited the vehicle and left it on the tracks, causing the train to derail," he said.
After hitting the truck, the crowded commuter train jumped its tracks and jack-knifed into the path of an oncoming passenger train. One of the trains then sideswiped a parked freight train.
01/26/2005 18:34 GMT - AFP