Passengers hurt in train accident

An injured woman is taken to hospital

Seven passengers were injured when a train hit buffers at Edinburgh's Waverley Station.

The crowded ScotRail service from Glasgow collided with the buffers at 0950 BST.

The train was travelling from Glasgow Queen Street when the accident happened and seven people were injured, including the driver, who suffered a minor head wound.

Freelance journalist Daniel Fisher, who was due to board a train to Glasgow, told BBC News Online: "As the train was coming into the station, it failed to stop and hit the buffers on platform 14.

An ambulance awaits injured passengers

"There was a loud bang and dust and the train came to a halt."

Mr Fisher said he could see two people injured.

An elderly woman was lying on the floor in one of the carriages. She was conscious and was attended to by staff and other passengers until an ambulance arrived.

Another woman was in a "distressed state" and was being comforted by passengers.

The casualties were understood to have suffered back and leg injuries and shock.

Police sealed off the area and took statements from passengers.

'Low-speed collision'

The train was the 0845 BST ScotRail service from Glasgow. It was slowing down as it entered Waverley Station and rolled into the buffers.

The front carriage was damaged and the buffers it collided with were broken.

A ScotRail spokesman said that there were about 200 passengers on board the train.

He said: "The 8.45am train from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley, which is one of our Turbostar trains, was involved in a low-speed collision with the buffers at platform 14.

"We think that there are seven people injured and the most serious seems to be a suspected broken leg and they have been taken to hospital.

"I was winded, it knocked the wind straight out of me. The kids were standing in the aisle and everyone just fell

Passenger Lisa Kochan

"The others are mainly suffering from shock and bruises.

"A full investigation has already begun."

The train driver underwent drink and drugs test which are carried out as a matter of routine following rail incidents.

Passenger Lisa Kochan, 34, from Edmonton, in Canada, had been on the train with her two daughters Jamie, eight, and Carly, 10.

She said: "We were just standing ready to get off and the train was slowing down before it came to a very abrupt stop.

"I was winded, it knocked the wind straight out of me.

"The kids were standing in the aisle and everyone just fell. I am quite upset that it happened.

"It didn't seem too bad but I didn't realise some of the other people on board were injured. The girls were a little scared, shaken up and frightened."

The train hit the station buffers

The Scottish Ambulance Service said the train driver was treated at the scene for a minor head injury.

A spokesman for Edinburgh Royal Infirmary said it had received six female passengers injured in the crash.

He added: "Thankfully they are mostly minor injuries.

"The most seriously injured has a fractured leg."

He said two women had been discharged after treatment for minor injuries and three others were being assessed.

A spokeswoman for Railtrack declined to disclose the speed the train would have been travelling at, or the mechanism by which trains normally come to a stop in stations.

'Violently forward'

"An investigation is under way, and it is too early to speculate," said the company.

Glasgow lawyer, John Paul Mowberry, 32, was another passenger on the train. He described how people were thrown "violently forward" as the train came to a halt.

Passengers included Scottish National Party health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon, a regional MSP for Glasgow.

The party said she was unhurt and shortly afterwards went straight into a meeting in Edinburgh.

Members of the Safe Trains Action Group, said it was "typical" that the crash should happen on the same day as Railtrack's annual meeting in York, where concerns about rail safety were being raised.

Treasurer Marion Carmichael said: "Nothing has changed, what else can you say. It's so typical that there should be a crash on a day like this."

Members of the pressure group, which campaigns on behalf of families of people killed or injured in rail disasters, were handing out leaflets calling for improved safety outside Railtrack's annual meeting.

The incident led to delays on the line but officials said they hoped to resume normal services later in the day.