Six killed in Washington subway crash

Washington, June 23 (ANI): Two subway trains crashed into each other at the height of the evening rush hour on Monday, killing at least six people and injuring several others.

A female driver of one of the trains is among the dead. A six-car train rear-ended the second train, which had stopped on the tracks near the northeast border of Maryland.

A D.C. fire department spokesman said both trains were ripped open and smashed together, forcing rescue workers to cut some people out of what he called a "mass casualty event."

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said 70 people were treated at the scene while some went to local hospitals, two with life-threatening injuries.

"The scene is as horrific as you can imagine. One car of the train was completely squeezed on top of the other," the Daily News quoted Fenty, as saying.

"There was no immediate explanation for the collision, which was the deadliest in the 33-year history of Washington's Metro system, Fenty said. The section of track where the crash occurred was aboveground, and the weather was clear.

Alice Miller watched the horrific scene on the outskirts of her backyard and spoke by cell phone to her injured daughter, Karen Miller Long, 46, who was in the rear car.

Emergency crews were pulling people out of the cars while dazed and bleeding survivors sat on the ground nearby, and uninjured passengers walked along the tracks.

Hours after the 5:05 p.m. accident, firefighters were still "cutting through the train" to free passengers, said Metro General Manager John Catoe. (ANI)