Argentina: at least 340 people injured in a train crash at a station in Buenos Aires

At least 340 people have been injured in a commuter train crash at a station in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The train is reported to have slammed into the barrier at the end of the platform at the Once station in the west of the city.

The injured driver and some passengers were taken away on stretchers, with the first carriage the worst affected.

The ministry of transport said it could not rule out fatalities, with many people still said to be trapped.

The transportation secretary, JP Schiavi, told reporters at the station that the commuter train had hit the barrier at about 12 mph (20km/h), destroying the front of the engine and crunching the carriages behind it.

One of the carriages was driven nearly six metres (20ft) into the next, he said.

“There are people still trapped, people alive, and there may have been fatalities. We don’t know if there are dead people in the wreckage,” JP Schiavi said.

Survivors told the TeleNoticias channel that many people had been injured in a jumble of metal and glass.

In September 2011 eleven people died when another commuter train in Buenos Aires hit a bus crossing the tracks and then hit a second train coming into a station.