LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Rescue workers searching for survivors on Saturday were feverishly prying open the wreckage of a passenger train that slammed head-on into a freight train near Los Angeles, killing at least 10 people.
The ten confirmed dead include a Los Angeles police officer that was riding Ventura County Line passenger train 111 when it smashed into a Union Pacific freight train shortly before 4:30 pm Pacific Time (23h30 GMT) on Friday.
"We're still in the rescue phase," Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters as Friday night gave way to Saturday morning.
"We're confirming that there were 10 fatalities, but we expect that number to grow."
The death toll is expected to rise by the time emergency workers finish searching the mangled debris near the town of Chatsworth northwest of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Fire Department chief Douglas Barry said rescue workers are using heavy equipment to pry open mangle railroad cars to get to people.
"It's terrible," Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Karen Smith said of the crash. "They are still working away."
About 135 people have been treated for injuries, according to Villaraigosa.
The Metrolink commuter train was said to be carrying 222 people when it slammed into an oncoming 450-ton locomotive that rammed through the nose of the passenger train, causing cars to fold into each other and topple.
Overturned passenger train cars were ablaze while passengers climbed out or helped each other escape.
At least seven cars from the freight train derailed, although most remained standing in accordion fashion across the tracks.
Fire crews swarmed to the scene, pulling injured passengers from the wreckage.
Among the injured was a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy that suffered broken bones and a punctured lung but is expected to survive.
The interior of the train was ``bloody, a mess. Just a disaster. It was horrible,'' passenger Austin Walbridge told a local television news reporter.
Some passengers had blood splattered across their faces as they huddled on the ground, tending to their injuries.
The cause of the crash remained a mystery.
The Metrolink train's usual routine is reportedly to wait until the Union Pacific freight train clears the track.
"There was a failure somewhere along the line," Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said on a local television news broadcast.
"This should not happen. There are many fail-safes, but we're still dealing with human beings and mechanical devices."
While there was no immediate evidence of intentional wrongdoing, the crash site is being treated as a crime scene "just to be on the safe side until we figure this out," Smith said.
California law would allow criminal charges to be filed if negligence caused the tragedy.
The most lethal crash in Metrolink's 16-year history occurred in January of 2005, when 11 people died and dozens were injured when a Metrolink train slammed into a Jeep Cherokee parked on train track, derailed and hit a freight train.
The man who parked the Jeep on the tracks was sentenced in August to 11 consecutive life prison terms.
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