Israeli train derails, several dead

BEIT YEHOSHUA, Israel, Jun 12 (Reuters) An Israeli commuter train slammed into a truck crossing the tracks and derailed today in an accident that killed several people and injured about 150 passengers, rescue services said.

The impact threw the locomotive on top of one carriage and another lay on its side in a mass of twisted metal.

Medics carried out passengers on stretchers outside a village near the coastal city of Netanya in central Israel, but an ambulance services spokesman said several were trapped.

''A train travelling from Tel Aviv to Haifa struck a truck at ... a junction,'' a police spokesman said. ''As a result of the impact, the first two carriages of the train were derailed. We are dealing with a large number of casualties.'' Ambulances and medical evacuation helicopters rushed to the scene. Dazed passengers walked along the tracks, while others used cellular telephones to call loved ones.

Rescue services said several people were killed and about 150 hurt.

''The truck simply stopped on the track and the driver managed to get out before the train slammed into it,'' a witness, who identified herself only as Miri, told Israel Radio.

Another witness, Adi, said: ''Within seconds, the carriages overturned and we heard a deafening bang.'' It was not immediately known if the crossing was equipped with an automatic barrier.

In June 2005, seven people were killed and more than 150 injured when a passenger train hit a truck south of Tel Aviv.

REUTERS SHB HT1600