Europe's history of rail disasters

October 2006: About 12 people are reported dead when a goods train and a passenger train collide in France just south of the border with Luxembourg.

June 2006: At least 30 people are killed and a dozen hurt in a metro train crash in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia.

January 2006: At least 39 people die and 135 are injured - many of them skiers - when a train plunges down a ravine after its brakes fail in Podgorica, Montenegro.

January 2005: A crowded Italian train collides head-on with a freight convoy in thick fog near Bologna, Italy, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 50.

November 2004: Seven are killed and 37 injured as a London to Plymouth train derails after hitting a car on a level-crossing in Berkshire, UK.

August 2004: At least six die and 85 are hurt in a head-on crash in north-western Turkey.

July 2004: A high-speed train from Istanbul to Ankara derails in the north-western province of Sakarya killing at least 36 people in one Turkey's worst ever rail disasters.

June 2003: At least 19 people die when a passenger train and a freight train collide in Spain's Albacete province.

May 2003: A train crashes into a German coach at a level crossing on the shores of Lake Balaton in Hungary, killing 33 people on the coach.

November 2002: Twelve people die in a fire on an overnight sleeper train near the eastern French city of Nancy.

May 2002: A crash at Potter's Bar in Britain kills seven people and injures dozens more when a train derails and smashes into a station.

September 2001: A head-on collision in southern Germany injures 82 people, nine of them seriously.

June 2001: Seven people are killed in two separate train crashes in Germany. Both were apparently caused by vehicles crossing railway lines despite warning signals.

March 2001: Eight people are killed when two trains smash into each other head-on in the village of Pecrot, about 26 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels.

February 2001: Ten people are killed in North Yorkshire, UK, when a high-speed passenger train hits a car on the track before colliding with a freight train.

October 2000: Four people are killed in the UK when a high-speed London to Leeds train derails at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

February 2000: Eight people are killed when an overnight passenger train is derailed near Cologne, Germany.

January 2000: Two passenger trains collide in Norway, 150 km (100 miles) north of Oslo, overturning several coaches and setting off a huge blaze. A total of 19 people die.

October 1999: Thirty-one people are killed when a high-speed passenger train approaching London's Paddington Station collides with a local commuter train.

June 1998: More than 100 people are killed when a German high-speed train travelling from Munich to Hamburg goes off the rails at Eschede.

September 1997: Seven people are killed when a Swansea-to-London express train collides with a goods locomotive.

June 1989: The most horrific European rail accident of recent years happens in Russia when a gas explosion erupts beneath two trains carrying more than 1,200 people near the town of Ufa, killing about 400 and injuring 600.

June 1989: In the same month, Russia suffers another tragedy when 31 people die and 66 are injured after an express train ploughs into a bus which has stalled on a level crossing in southern Russia.

December 1988: Britain's Clapham Junction crash kills 35 people when three morning rush-hour trains collide in south London.

June 1988: A rush-hour train runs into the back of another at Paris's Gare de Lyon, killing 59.

September 1985: A holiday express crashes near Argenton-sur-Creuse, north of Limoges in France, killing 43 people and injuring another 30.

August 1985: A month earlier, 33 people die and 165 are injured in a head-on collision between two trains in southern France.

1967: Germany suffers a major rail disaster, when a train collides with another carrying petrol tankers near the city of Magdeburg, causing an explosion that kills 94 people.

October 1952: A total of 112 people are killed and 340 hurt in a crash at Harrow and Wealdstone in north-west London.

May 1915: The UK's worst crash takes place when a World War I troop train collides with a stationary train near Gretna Green in Scotland, and is then itself hit by an express passenger train. More than 200 people - most of them soldiers - are killed in the two crashes and ensuing fires.