Train crash on Danish bridge kills 6, injures 16

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish passenger train apparently hit falling cargo from a passing freight train today, an accident that killed six people and injured 16 others as it crossed a bridge linking the country's islands, authorities said.

The accident was the worst in Denmark in more than 30 years.

The rail operator, Danish Railways, told Denmark's TV2 that the victims were passengers on a train going from the city of Odense, on the central Danish island of Funen, to the capital of Copenhagen when the accident took place about 8 a.m.

Authorities said the trains were going past each other in opposite directions. Aerial TV footage showed one side of front of the passenger train had been ripped open. Photos showed that the freight train was carrying crates of beer, and the tarpaulin that covered the cargo train was torn in pieces.

Police declined to comment directly on a report from Denmark's TV2 channel that a large freight container had likely fallen off the cargo train.

Jesper Nielsen, who was on the passenger train, told Denmark's TV2 the train "was out on the bridge when there was a huge 'bang' ... very quickly thereafter, the train braked."

"It is much too early to speculate as to what might have caused it," chief police investigator Joergen Andersen told reporters. "It has been a pretty serious accident."