Luxury tourist train derails in South Africa killing three people including mother and newborn baby

The South African antique luxury Rovos Rail train lays derailed outside the capital Pretoria

Emergency workers search the scene of the train derailment this afternoon

Wrecked: The South African antique luxury Rovos Rail train lays derailed outside the capital Pretoria

A restored vintage train carrying tourists on a luxury rail safari derailed in Pretoria killing three people - including a mother and her baby, which was born after the crash.

Seventeen coaches of the Rovos Rail train, which was near the end of a journey from Cape Town, came off the tracks just outside a station in the city.

Twenty-five other passengers were taken to hospital.
'Patients were strewn all over the scene,' said Werner Vermaak, spokesman for a private ambulance company ER24.


A restored train carrying foreign tourists on a luxury rail safari went off the tracks Wednesday outside a station in the South African capital, killing three people

Rescue team attend to an injured person after the South African antique luxury Rovos Rail train derailed outside the capital Pretoria

One of the victims was pregnant. The pregnant woman went into labor immediately after the accident, possibly from the force of the impact, but neither she nor her baby survived.

Vermaak said power tools had to be used to cut some passengers from the wreckage.

The accident comes just seven weeks before hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists are expected to descend upon South Africa for the World Cup.

A Rovos Rail spokesman said the train was carrying 55 passengers plus crew.

The passengers were from several countries including Britain, America and Germany.
Rovos Rail offers holiday trips across Africa that recall the golden age of travel, on trains that combine Edwardian period features such as wood panelling with modern conveniences such as air conditioning and hot showers.

The trains carry up to 72 passengers in 36 cabins. The routes were established in 1989 and run with restored locomotives.

The oldest engine in the fleet is a 76-ton 'Class 6' locomotive originally built in 1893; the youngest is a 225-ton steam engine built in 1954.

The train travels around South Africa and to Namibia and Tanzania.

The Cape Town-Pretoria route costs between £1,000 and £2,000 per passenger for the two-day trip.

The train also traverses the famed 'Cape to Cairo' route, a month-long journey between Cape Town and Egypt's capital. That trip can cost up to £36,000 per passenger.

The passengers included 44 Americans, four each from France, South Africa and Britain, and three from Germany, for a total of 59, said Rovos Rail Managing Director Rohan Vos. Another official had earlier said 55 passengers were aboard.