The Hague - An elderly woman died on Sunday of injuries she sustained in a head-on train collision near Amsterdam the previous day, which authorities said injured a total of 117 people.
“Earlier today a 68-year-old woman from the eastern Netherlands died as a result of her injuries,” said a statement issued by the city of Amsterdam. She was not identified.
Rescue services scrambled after the accident, which happened at around 6.30pm on Saturday when a local train leaving Amsterdam hit a high-speed train on a bridge west of Amsterdam's central station.
“In total, 117 people were wounded, 42 of them with serious injuries,” the city's statement said on Sunday, confirming final figures.
Sixteen people were still being treated in hospital for their injuries, it added.
Police said they were looking into the causes of the crash, which the head of the Dutch railway company, Bert Meerstadt, called “one of the worst collisions in recent years”.
“It is important that we know down to the last detail how something like this could have happened,” Meerstadt told a televised press conference.
Both trains were travelling relatively slowly at the time of the crash, Dutch media reported, and witnesses quoted by television said the impact had not been violent.
Witnesses described how travellers had been thrown about inside the carriages or up against their windows, some of which had shattered. A long hoot from one of the trains was heard before the crash.
Pictures from the scene showed the crushed front ends of both the trains and smashed windows in some of the carriages. - Sapa-AFP-IOL
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