Buenos Aires: A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos
Aires' busy Once station on Wednesday, injuring at least 650 morning
commuters, Argentina's transportation secretary 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 told
reporters at the station.

The commuter train came in too fast
and hit the barrier at the end of the platform at about 12 mph (20 kph),
smashing the front of the engine and crunching the leading cars behind
it, Schiavi said. One car penetrated nearly 20 feet (six meters) into
the next, he said.

Most damaged was the first car, where
passengers make space for bicycles. Survivors told the TeleNoticias
channel that many people were injured in a jumble of metal and glass.

Passengers
said windows exploded as the tops of train cars separated from their
floors. The trains are usually packed with people standing between the
seats, and many were thrown into each other and to the floor by the
force of the hard stop.

Many people suffered bruises, and many
with lesser injuries were waiting for attention on the Once (OHN-say)
station's platforms as helicopters and more than a dozen ambulances took
the most seriously injured to nearby hospitals.

"This machine
left the shop yesterday and the brakes worked well. From what we know,
it braked without problems at previous stations. At this point I don't
want to speculate about the causes," Ruben Sobrero, union chief on the
Sarmiento line, told Radio La Red.

The motorman has been hospitalised and the union hasn't been able to speak with him yet, Sobrero added.