At least one person was killed and 30 others injured when a train derailed in the Netherlands after colliding with a construction crane early on Tuesday, local media and emergency services said.

About 50 people were said to be in the double-decker train, the Dutch emergency services told local media. Many of the injured are said to be in serious condition.

The incident took place at 3:25 am local time (0125GMT) in the Voorschoten village near The Hague.

Two carriages of the night train which was on its way from the city of Leiden to The Hague were derailed while a fire was reported in a rear carriage but was later extinguished, according to the local ANP news agency. One carriage landed on a field next to the track while the second one was on its side.

On Twitter, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed his condolences and said that his thoughts were with the families and with the victims.


Train officials said that trains have been canceled running from Leiden City to The Hague while trains running from Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris have been affected.

The accident happened near Voorschoten, a village between The Hague and Amsterdam, at approximately 3:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning when the train hit a construction crane on the tracks and derailed, a Dutch railway spokesperson told ABC News.

It is currently unclear why there was construction equipment on the tracks but an investigation into the crash is underway.

Several dozen people who were injured in the incident were being treated at the scene of the crash while others who suffered more serious injuries were immediately taken to a local area hospital, authorities said.

Images showed people using makeshift bridges and ladders to cross a narrow drainage canal running alongside the rails to reach the stricken four-carriage passenger train in the darkness.

Specialists are currently working to secure the train and have asked the public to stay away from the crash site at this time.

The European Train Control System (ETCS) suffered the same fate as the automatic signaling system, which was not in place at the time of the February 28 railway collision.

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The number of people killed in rail accidents in the European Union has drastically decreased over the last 10 years, according to Eurostat.

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