/ 13 November 2000

NIGHT DIG FOR ALPINE TRAIN BLAZE VICTIMS

AUSTRIAN rescuers have dug through the night to recover the remains of at least 155 people from the incinerated wreck of an Alpine train packed with skiers. Pathologists will have to use DNA tests to identify many of the victims of Austria’s worst peacetime disaster on the Kitzsteinhorn mountain on Saturday. Officials have established the names of 155 of those killed with 90% certainty, based on evidence from friends and relatives. But only an autopsy can identify the individual corpses strewn around, under and inside the remains of the single funicular railway carriage. The final death toll, including Austrian, German, American and Japanese tourists, could rise as high as 175. Some victims were found 60m up the tunnel after apparently escaping the blaze but succumbing to poisonous fumes. The fire turned the shaft into a giant chimney, even killing three people at the top station. – Reuters