Harrowing task for fire tunnel teams

Sad scene dominated by the Kitzsteinhorn mountain

Austrian emergency workers have recovered the bodies of more than 60 victims of Saturday's fire in an Alpine train tunnel.

A spokesman for the emergency services said the bodies had been relatively easy to reach, but added that the work was taking place in atrocious conditions and warned it could take a week to recover all the dead.

The force of the fire was so great that the surroundings melted. We have to cut out each victim

Major Franz Lang, Austrian Police

Austrian police fear that 159 people were killed in the blaze, which has left the country in mourning.

France has ordered a thorough review of all its funicular railways to prevent a similar tragedy.

Difficult conditions

A total of 66 bodies have now been removed from the wreckage. But high winds have forced rescuers to suspend efforts to bring more bodies down.

Austrian President Thomas Klestil attends a mass for the victims

Earlier, 29 bodies were airlifted to the regional capital, Salzburg, for identification. They may require DNA testing because the remains are so badly burned.

The remains of another 17 bodies were waiting to be transported from the mountain. But strong winds have made it difficult for helicopters to operate.

Rescue workers were reported to be edging up the sloping tunnel towards the train.

But they were having to take care not to dislodge rocks which could lead to the tunnel collapsing.

Melted wreckage

Major Franz Lang, head of the police operation to trace victims of the fire, told a news conference that the work was extremely hard for the emergency teams.

Ski train victims

52 Austrians

42 Germans

10 Japanese

8 Americans

3 Slovenians

One Briton

40 unidentified

"The force of the fire was so great that the surroundings melted. We have to cut out each victim," he said.

He said the names of those who died had been determined with a 90% degree of certainty.

Major Lang corrected earlier figures on the nationalities of the victims, saying that three Slovenians were among the dead, not two Slovenians and one Croatian as previously reported.

Their names have not yet been released, but the vast majority of the victims were Austrians and Germans, many of them children.

The Foreign Office in London has confirmed that one British man, Kevin Challis, was among the dead.

Escape

The cause of the fire, on a train powered by cable and with no engine on board, remains a mystery.

But investigators believe the fire may have started before the single carriage train entered the 3.2km tunnel.

Emergency numbers for relatives

00 43 654 720 000

00 43 662 814 4300

"We have received information that the light of a fire was already visible to outside witnesses as the train was entering the tunnel," Austria's public security chief, Erik Buxbaum, said.

Twelve people escaped by breaking out of the back of the train and running away from the flames and smoke.

"My only thought was to get out. I was able to save myself at the last moment because a window was kicked in and I could fight my way outside," a survivor told the Austria Press Agency.

The Kitzsteinhorn railway has been operating since 1974. The nine minute journey takes skiers up 1,500 metres to an altitude of 2,400 metres.