A train carrying 55 passengers derailed along Norway’s northern coast Thursday, killing at least one person and injuring four others when the Arctic Circle Express plunged off its mountainside track following a suspected rockslide.
The accident occurred at 1215 GMT as the train traveled from Trondheim toward Bodoe, a remote town above the Arctic Circle. Emergency services evacuated surviving passengers through windows, transporting the uninjured by bus to Mo i Rana, located 228 kilometers south of Bodoe.
“I flew over a guy and broke a table in front of us. But I was lucky and sustained no injuries. I’m just a little shaky,” passenger Sissel Trøan told Norwegian broadcaster NRK, describing the “dramatic” sudden braking that sent passengers flying and shattered windows throughout the carriages.
Eyewitness accounts and photos shared by Norwegian media revealed a massive boulder on the track that had crashed into one of the train’s five carriages. Passenger Ingvart Strand Mølster reported to NRK that while a rock struck the train, most passengers in his carriage escaped serious harm, with only one person suffering a minor ankle injury.
Video footage showed the derailed train had crashed through trees before coming to rest on a road below the tracks. The highway was immediately closed to traffic following the incident. Photos revealed the locomotive and at least two passenger carriages had left the tracks near Bodoe.
Police told the Norwegian news agency NTB that a rockslide likely caused the derailment. The four injured passengers were transported to a nearby hospital, though their conditions remain unclear.
