Six killed and 50 injured in Italian train smash inferno

AT LEAST six people died and 50 were injured in an inferno when a train derailed and exploded in the small Italian town of Viareggio.

Officials said today that two carriages filled with liquefied natural gas erupted into flames when the freight train carriages careered into homes just outside the rail station in the Tuscan town of Viareggio.

The train blast caused a building to collapse and set fire to a vast area of Viareggio destroying properties and cars.

Five people were killed when their house collapsed, while a sixth victim was riding a scooter along the rail line when the train derailed, a police spokesman in Viareggio said.

Lucca’s top government official, Prefect Carmelo Aronica, said at least 50 people were injured, 35 of whom were in hospital with severe burns.

The train derailed at Viareggio in Tuscany just before midnight.

Firefighters said the Viareggio blaze was being contained but there was still the risk other train cars containing gas would explode.