Grim search may take days

Thirteen people are known to have died

Emergency services have said it may be the weekend before the final number of people who died in the Selby rail crash is known.

Rescue teams are continuing to search the wreckage for bodies trapped in the mangled carriages.

Police investigating the crash in Selby are considering the possiblity that the driver of the car involved may have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Elaine Hart, the wife of the driver, has denied the suggestion and told a news conference that her husband, Gary, was grief stricken at what had happened.

The inquiry is still at an early stage and other possibilities are also being considered.

It is the fear of everybody that there may be people unaccounted for

Chief Insp Martin Hemingway

Thirteen people died and 70 were injured on Wednesday when a Land Rover careered into the path of a passenger train which was then hit by a freight train at Great Heck near Selby, North Yorkshire.

Chief Inspector Martin Hemingway said rescue services had not yet been able to fully search two of the carriages to check for victims.

"It is the fear of everybody that there may be people unaccounted for," he said

Click here to see a map of the accident.

Rail company GNER has named the driver of its train as John Weddle and said chef Paul Taylor, who was from the Newcastle area, was also among the victims.

Freightliner, the company running the goods train in the crash, said one of its two drivers, Stephen Dunn, 39, had died but its other driver Andrew Hill, also 39, was in a satisfactory condition in hospital.

Gary Hart: Wife says he is grief-stricken

Superintendent Tony Thompson, of British Transport Police, said it was too early to say how many people were travelling on the train or how many people were still missing.

"It may be the weekend before we are certain how many have died," he said.

But he said recovery of property would help identify victims.

Mangled wreck

Cranes and specialist cutting equipment will only move into lift the mangled wreckage on Friday once possessions have been removed.

More than 20 of the injured are still in hospital, two of them remain critically ill.

Dean McQue, divisional officer for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services, said the rescuers had faced a difficult and harrowing task.

"We have gone to enormous lengths to preserve the dignity of the dead," he said.

A team of 50 specially-trained officers, from the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and Greater Manchester Police, are undertaking the task of recovering the bodies.

'Freak accident'

The collision near Selby, in which the drivers of both trains were killed, has been described as a freak accident.

The Land Rover, driven by Gary Hart, was pulling a car on a trailer when it came off the M62 motorway where it crosses the East Coast main line, and slid down an embankment onto the tracks.

Mr Hart's wife Elaine said the suggestion he had fallen asleep at the wheel was "rubbish".

Flowers have been laid in tribute to the victims

Speaking on behalf of her husband she told the BBC: "His deepest sympathy goes out to the families of the dead and injured."

The southbound 0445 Newcastle to London train, travelling at 125mph, hit the vehicles and derailed at around 0612GMT, skidding onto the northbound track.

Moments later, a freight train heading north loaded with 1,000 tonnes of coal ploughed into the train at 60mph, crushing several carriages and throwing one into a field.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has asked the Health and Safety Executive for an interim report expected within days.

An emergency number 0207 8347777 has been set up for members of the public concerned about friends and relatives.

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