At least 11 people were killed and 28 were injured when a train derailed this morning near the northern Italian town of Merano after a landslide damaged tracks.
"Rescue workers are still working at the crash site," Giuseppe Marazzi, a Civil Protection Agency official, said in a telephone interview from the nearby city of Bolzano, near the Austrian border. Seven of the injured are in a "serious condition," he said.
The crash took place at about 9.00am, a police official said.
One coach derailed and is hanging over the Adige River in Laces, a small village in the mountains near Merano, which is about 300km from Venice.
The local train operated by SAD SpA, a company controlled by the Bolzano province, is frequently used by students and workers on weekdays, news agency Ansa reported.
SAD officials could not be reached for comment.
Italian transport minister Altero Matteoli is on his way to the crash site, the ministry said.
The crash is the worst in Italy since 31 people died in June 2009 in the Tuscan city of Viareggio, after liquefied petroleum gas spilled by a freight train derailed and exploded at a railway station.