Denmark train crash injures 18, including five critically

A head-on collision between two commuter trains near the Danish capital left five people critically injured and 13 others hurt, authorities said, in a crash that sent emergency crews rushing to a wooded rural area north of Copenhagen.

Police said they could not yet say what caused the accident, which happened near a level crossing about 40km north of Copenhagen, close to the town of Hillerod.

“Eighteen people have been injured in the accident. Of these, five are currently considered to be in critical condition,” police said in a statement, citing health authorities.

Authorities said they received the first alert about the crash at 6.29am local time.

There were 37 people aboard the two trains, police said.

A major emergency response followed, with numerous ambulances and police vehicles sent to the scene. All passengers were evacuated, and those who were injured were taken to hospital.

Gribskov municipality mayor Trine Egetved wrote on Facebook that some of the injured were airlifted to hospital by helicopter.

Rescue workers at the scene of the collision

Emergency crews wrapped up rescue operations about three hours after the crash, while investigators remained at the site to examine what happened.

“We can’t provide any details for now about the cause,” police official Morten Kaare Pedersen told reporters.

“We are in the process of gathering the necessary information about the course of events. So there are, and will continue to be for quite some time, a lot of investigations under way.”

Kristian Madsen, a railway expert with the Danish union IDA, told AFP he believed human error was the most likely explanation for the collision.

“It could be that the locomotive driver hadn’t seen that the signal was on red and then continued driving…

The other thing it could be is that that the station master who is responsible for the signalling on the station had given the train a green signal,” Mr Madsen said.

He said the stretch of railway still operated with an “old signal system”.

Ms Egetved said she was “deeply upset and shocked”.

“This train is used by many residents of Gribskov, workers and students,” she said.

Denmark has long emphasized its strong safety record, though a 2019 train crash killed eight people and injured 16.

In August last year, an express train struck a farm truck at a crossing, killing one person and injuring 27.