Nine people were killed and 45 injured yesterday when an inter-city commuter train derailed at high speed south of Sydney and smashed into a rockface.
The early morning service jumped the tracks when it failed to negotiate a bend near Waterfall, 40 kilometres south of Sydney, flipping two of the four double-deck carriages on their side.
Rescue efforts were hampered by the remote crash site, with emergency services crews forced to carry heavy cutting equipment 1.5 kilometres along a steep dirt-track to reach the scene.
Rescuers said the train struck the sandstone cliff with enormous impact and the unstable wreckage made cutting victims free a delicate operation - taking up to five hours.
The train driver died as his compartment was crushed by the crash, which happened on a steep railway cutting four kilometres south of Waterfall railway station bordering Sydney's Royal National Park.
Forty-five people were hospitalised - two of them in a critical condition and another 21 listed as serious.
AFP