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Death toll rises to eight in Danish Great Belt Bridge train accident

AFP/The Local
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Death toll rises to eight in Danish Great Belt Bridge train accident
The train wreckage on the Great Belt Bridge on Wednesday, January 2nd. Photo: Tim K. Jensen/Ritzau Scanpix

The death toll from a train accident on Denmark’s Great Belt Fixed Link has risen from six to eight, police said early on Thursday.

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Six people were on Wednesday reported to have lost their lives when a truck trailer appeared to blow off a cargo train in strong winds and hit a passenger train travelling eastwards on the box-girder bridge section of the fixed link between the islands of Zealand, where Copenhagen is located, and Funen.

That figure has now been increased to eight, police said.

“Our investigations during the night have unfortunately shown that a further two people were killed on the train in relation to what we were able to verify yesterday,” chief of Funen Police Arne Gram said in a statement given to media on Thursday morning.

Five women and three men were killed in the accident, which occurred just after 7:30am on Wednesday. There were no children amongst the dead, Funen Police chief superintendent Lars Bræmhøj confirmed.

Sixteen others were hurt, but none of them suffered life-threatening injuries.

Investigators said on Wednesday the passenger train appeared to have struck an empty truck trailer that had blown off a cargo train travelling in the opposite direction on a different track.

Debris could be seen lying across the front of the passenger train.

Investigators said they did not yet know why or how the trailer fell off.

READ ALSO: Great Belt Bridge rail accident caused by collision with objects from freight train: police

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