170 perish in Alpine tunnel inferno
Baku, June 10 (AZERTAC). MORE than 170 skiers and snowboarders, many of them children, choked and burnt to death yesterday when fire swept through a packed funicular train trapped inside a mountainside tunnel in the Austrian Alps.
Relatives of the victims of the train disaster mourn in the local firefighter hall in Kaprun.
British holidaymakers were believed to be among the victims on the cable railway to the popular Kitzsteinhorn glacier. Dozens of children and teenagers were killed on the cable railway in the Alps` worst disaster. Austrian police said that most of the victims had been burnt to ashes by a fire so ferocious that it destroyed everything but the train`s chassis. Capt Harald Hofmann of the Salzburg police, said: "We will only be able to identify them from rings, X-rays and dental work."
There was disbelief when it emerged last night that there was no fire-fighting equipment in the tunnel or on the train. Manfred Muller, the railway`s security director, said: "We never thought it was possible that a fire could break out." When it was built in 1974 the system was described as "fireproof". The funicular was thoroughly overhauled and modernised six years ago.
Only eight of the estimated 180 passengers are thought to have escaped the carnage after breaking the window of the rear carriage and scrambling to safety. Everyone else aboard perished in the darkness after the blaze erupted at 9.30am near Kaprun, 9,000ft above sea level.
Tony Blair was told that British skiers were believed to be among the dead when he phoned Wolfgang Schossel, the Austrian chancellor, to offer his condolences, Downing Street said. The victims were also thought to include two Americans from a ski club at a US military base in Germany.
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