Italian rescuers recovered eight bodies, including the driver, from the mangled wreckage of an express train which was derailed in Sicily, officials said yesterday.
The cause of the accident, which left more than 40 injured, was unclear but police said part of the track appeared to be damaged. One hypothesis was that the ballast under the track gave way.
On Saturday police reported the seven-carriage train had crashed into a bridge but said later it had crashed into an empty building after it derailed.
A family of four of Moroccan origin and a young Sicilian woman who lived in Germany are believed to be among the victims, they said.
Two children who were part of the Moroccan family, one aged six and the other eight, survived the crash.
The train, travelling to Venice from the Sicilian capital, Palermo, with 190 passengers on board, came off the tracks at about 7 p.m. on Saturday near the station of Rometta, a town west of Messina.
"I remember confusion, the scene was terrifying," one female passenger was quoted by Italian news agency ANSA as saying. "The luggage was falling on all sides, then screaming, fear. I escaped out a window and then helped others to escape. Everything around was terrifying."
Rescue teams worked through the night looking for trapped passengers and any further victims.
Three inquiries have been launched to discover what caused the disaster. The area has been cordoned off and the rail track closed while the inquiries are carried out.
Politicians were quick to blame the accident on the ageing railroad network in Italy's poorer southern regions and a history of neglect on the part of different governments.
"Sicily has been forgotten and left behind for decades," said Mr Domenico Nania, a senator for the National Alliance, part of the current ruling coalition.
Mr Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, of the Green Party, criticised government plans to build a $4.3 billion suspension bridge to connect Sicily with the mainland while letting the rail system rot.
Currently, trains travelling between the Mediterranean island and mainland Italy roll on to huge ferries to sail across the straits that divide the city of Messina and the southern toe of Italy.
The worst train accident in Sicily's history occurred in 1979, according to ANSA, when 12 people were killed during a two-train collision.
The collision occurred only 20 kilometres from Saturday's crash.