ISRAEL: Passengers escape without serious injuries after a passenger train catches fire

Record ID: 397124

  • Title: ISRAEL: Passengers escape without serious injuries after a passenger train catches fire
  • Date: 29th December 2010
  • Summary: SHFAYIM, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 28, 2010) (REUTERS) AMBULANCE DRIVING, SMOKE BILLOWING FROM TRAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF FIELD VARIOUS SMOKE BILLOWING, PEOPLE STANDING IN FIELD SHATTERED WINDOWS OF TRAIN, FIREFIGHTERS EXTINGUISHING FIRE MORE OF FIREFIGHTERS EXTINGUISHING FIRE VARIOUS ISRAELI SOLDIER TREATED FOR SMOKE INHALATION AMBULANCE DRIVING ISRAELI SOLDIER SITTING AFTER BE
  • Embargoed: 13th January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel, Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA50VAL6A96FT56VPG6SQJRIZ33
  • Story Text: An Israeli passenger train caught fire near Tel Aviv on Tuesday (December 28) but no one was seriously hurt.
    According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, 116 passengers were evacuated to hospitals, among them five who were suffering burns and wounds from glass windows
    they crawled through while escaping the blaze. The rest of the injured suffered from smoke inhalation.
    Passenger Martine Cohen told Reuters Television she jumped out of a window.
    "We jumped, it was high, I don't actually know, I know that I jumped. I left my belongings in the train and started walking, simply to move further away as fast as I could," she said.
    Witnesses interviewed by Israeli radio stations said several of the carriages were still ablaze after the passengers were taken off the train, which had been heading to Tel Aviv from northern Israel.
    The head of the Magen David Adom ambulance service, Eli Bin, told Reuters Television the passenger evacuation was under control from the start.
    "Actually, the event, from the beginning, was under full medical control with regards to treating casualties. At the moment we are evacuating the last people who were injured to the nearby hospitals," Bin said.
    A police spokesman said the cause of the fire was not immediately clear, but Israeli websites reported that the fire was possibly caused by a fuel leak.
    Train movement between Tel Aviv and northern Israel has been shut down until further notice.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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