Rail focus of Sicily crash inquiry

Rescuers work on the wreckage of the train after it crashed into a bridge

PALERMO, Sicily -- Italian investigators are trying to determine the cause of a train crash that killed eight people, including the driver, and injured 48 other passengers.

The overnight express train, which was carrying 190 passengers on its way between Palermo and Venice, derailed and smashed into an empty house in Sicily on Saturday evening.

Early reports said it has crashed into a bridge which later collapsed onto some of the seven carriages, but this was later discounted.

Three separate inquiries have been launched into the accident which happened at 7:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) but initial indications point to two possible causes.

One is that the rails were damaged, or a subsided embankment, made the tracks uneven and caused the derailment.

The second is that the train was travelling too fast and jumped the tracks.

Police told Reuters that the track about 300 metres from the crash site near Rometta Marea station appeared to be damaged.

The engine ended up spinning 180 degrees in the accident.

Opposition politicians were quick to blame the ageing rail network and years of neglect for the accident.

Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi, who travelled to the crash site, told The Associated Press: "No one should be allowed to use this tragedy for political speculation."

State railway spokesman Marco Mancini strongly denied the accusations, saying maintenance work had been carried out on the line between May and June. The engine had been checked earlier this month, he added.

"It is too early to formulate any clear hypothesis on the causes of the disaster.

"Those who do it seem not to have respect for the people who lost their lives in the accident," he was quoted by AP as saying.

A family of four of Moroccan origin and a 24-year-old Sicilian woman who lived in Germany were among the victims, officials said.

Local residents had rushed to the scene when they heard of the accident.

"We were sitting calmly in the first carriage when we noticed the train veering suddenly," survivor Giovanni Andronico told the ANSA news agency. "Suitcases and bricks from the house we hit started raining down on us."

"I remember confusion, the scene was terrifying," another passenger said.

"The luggage was falling on all sides, then screaming, fear. I escaped out a window and then helped others to escape. Everything around was terrifying," she said.