An inquiry has started into the death of a 12-year-old girl who was struck by a train in Moira, Co Down, on the main Dublin-Belfast line on Thursday night.
Olivia Hughes is believed to have crossed the tracks only yards from her house at Moira station when she was hit by a Belfast-bound express train from Dublin at around 6.30 p.m. She died instantly.
Yesterday pupils and teachers at Friends school in Lisburn were stunned by Olivia's death, which comes only a week after the school's former head boy was killed in a car crash. A speech day event was cancelled as a mark of respect to her.
The headmaster, Mr Trevor Green, said: "We are all deeply shocked by this terrible news and we extend our deepest sympathies to Olivia's family and to her sister, Stephanie, who is a year 11 pupil."
Olivia was a bright, academically gifted pupil, a talented swimmer and promising hockey-player; she would be sadly missed by everybody in the school, Mr Green said. Police and Northern Ireland Railway officers closed the line on Thursday night to begin an investigation.
A spokesman for Translink, Mr Seamus Scallon, said everybody at the company was "devastated", especially the train driver.
"The driver concerned was completely shocked by what occurred last night. He certainly had a very restless night. His thoughts are with the family and he is trying very hard to come to terms with what has happened," Mr Scallon said.
An independent councillor in Moira, Mr Ronnie Crawford, called for security barriers to be erected at the railway crossing. He said Olivia's death was the third such tragedy this year, following the death of a man on a level crossing and another incident in nearby Lisburn.