MERANO, Italy, April 12 (UPI) -- Mud and rocks cascaded down a mountainside and hit a train in northern Italy Monday, killing at least nine passengers and hurting about 30 more, officials said.
Officials said pine trees kept the regional commuter train from falling into the Adige River after it was derailed by the landslide as it traveled through a ravine, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Many people were trapped in the wreckage and rescue crews tried "desperately" to secure a car suspended over the river, witnesses told Sky News. At least seven of the victims had serious injuries.
Officials said the slide likely was triggered by an irrigation pipe that broke and undermined the mountainside, ANSA reported.
The accident occurred near Merano in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige.
Italian Transport Minister Altero Matteoli, who flew to the scene, called the timing of the accident "an incredible case of bad luck."
"I'm not an expert but it's clear the slide hit the passing train with huge force," Matteoli said. "A slide measuring some 10 meters (about 35 feet) wide ... struck the train just when it was passing underneath."
Another passenger train had passed in the opposite direction just minutes before, ANSA said.
The crash was the most serious Italian rail disaster since June 29, 2009, when 32 people were killed in a gas-train explosion at Viareggio.
