Two dead in Washington rush-hour metro crash

Two subway trains slammed into each other on Monday killing two people as one train crashed onto the top of the other at the start of
Washington's busy evening rush hour, officials said.

Television images showed at least two carriages of one train had been mounted onto the top of the other one, partially crushing at least one carriage below, as reports said there were also massive injuries.

"We have two confirmed fatalities," communications official Carlotta Tyler said, adding that "there have been some serious injuries."

The collision occurred at 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) near the Fort Totten Metro station close to the District of Colombia's borderline with the state of Maryland.

"A six-car Red Line train... was involved in a collision with another train at 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) today," the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) said in a statement.

Emergency workers were seen battling to lever up the raised carriages to get to the one below where commuters were believed to be trapped inside.

Dozens of passengers, safely evacuated from the train, were standing by the train tracks close to the collision site.

Washington Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department spokesman Alan Etter told a local ABC television news station the incident was "developing into a mass casualty event."

Trains were being turned back at Brookland, Takoma, Rhode Island Avenue and Silver Spring stations "due to a train experiencing mechanical difficulties outside of Fort Totten station," WMATA said, adding shuttle bus service had been requested.

The last major crash in the United States was in September, when 25 people were killed when the conductor of a train in Los Angeles was sending text messages on his mobile phone during working hours when he was driving a commuter train.

The deadly collision on Friday in Chatsworth, north of Los Angeles, also injured 134 people and was the worst train accident in the United States in some 15 years.