One person was killed and several others injured after two trains collided in north London on Friday, the British Transport Police and a United Kingdom official said.
British Transport Police said officers were still responding to a crash in Bedford, a market town 56 kilometers north of England’s capital. Some paramedics said they were responding to the incident.
“We know that a number of people have been injured and one has died very painfully,” the police said in a statement, noting that “a major incident has been declared.” Two East Midlands Railway trains were involved in the accident.
Bedfordshire Police and the Fire and Rescue and Ambulance Services are also responding, British Transport Police said.
“I am being kept up to date with the collision between two trains between Luton and Bedford,” wrote James Murray, the health and social care secretary, on social media. “Many people were injured and I thank the first responders who helped those affected.”
Unverified footage on social media appeared to show two East Midlands Railway trains colliding, one running into the other, with passengers standing on the tracks alongside the damaged trains. The trains were seen stopped on the tracks, according to video posted by CBS News partner BBC News.
Passenger Peter Knapp told the BBC he saw “faces covered in blood” and passengers who appeared to have broken legs. He hurt his back, he said.
“I felt like a bomb went off,” Knapp told the BBC. He said there was “smoke everywhere” in the train carriages and said he could not “imagine the condition of the (train) driver.”
Another passenger, Shola Mene, told the BBC there was “a lot of noise” and “people were flying out of their seats.”
“Someone just flew into my husband’s face,” said Mene. “It was full of blood. Many people had facial injuries.”
The East of England Ambulance Service said on social media that it had sent “a number of services,” including an air ambulance and an emergency response team, to a “major rail incident south of Bedford.”
Meanwhile, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said “crews are currently attending an incident on the railway south of Bedford.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “deeply concerned” by reports of collisions.
Train operator Thameslink, which serves the region, said on its X account that “all lines are closed between Luton and Bedford… due to a problem being investigated.” East Midlands Railway said trains to and from London St. Pancras has been suspended, customers advised not to go out in the evening.
England’s Rail Accident Investigation Branch said in X that a team of inspectors is at the scene, and will investigate the incident.
Train collisions are not uncommon in Britain.
In September 2023, several people were injured after two trains collided at Aviemore railway station in the Highlands of Scotland. The accident happened on the Strathspey Railway, which is a heritage railway that runs separately from public passenger services, and involved a stationary carriage and another train at the station. One of the trains involved was the historic Flying Scotsman, a century old, the first train to reach more than 100 miles per hour, the National Railway Museum said.
In August 2020, a morning service from Aberdeen to Glasgow derailed, killing three people near the town of Stonehaven, in north-east Scotland, after a landslide caused by heavy rain. The train driver, conductor and passenger died. Six other people were injured.
Network Rail – an arm of the UK’s Department for Transport – pleaded guilty in 2023 to safety failings in court proceedings and the public body was fined $8.4 million.
