Italian emergency services say five railway workers were killed in northern Italy after being run over by a train while conducting overnight maintenance work.
The train, which was transporting waggons on the Milan-Turin line and had no passengers, was travelling at 160 kilometres (99 miles) per hour when it hit the team replacing parts of the track near Brandizzo, on the outskirts of Turin.
"Five workers were killed by a passing train, two others injured," the fire service said in a brief statement on Thursday.
The bodies of the men, reported to be aged between 22 and 52 years old, were said to have been dragged for several metres.
Chilling scene
Two of their colleagues were unharmed but remain under observation in hospital, while the train driver was in shock but uninjured, according to Italian news agencies.
RFI, the company that manages Italy's rail network, confirmed the news and offered its "deep sorrow" and condolences for the families of the victims, stressing that investigations were underway.
Paolo Bodoni, the mayor of Brandizzo, told the AGI news agency that an emergency worker had described to him a "chilling scene, with human remains across 300 metres".
"It's a huge tragedy. It cannot be excluded that there could have been a communication error," he said.
The train line between Turin and Milan remained suspended early on Thursday morning.
