Breaking: Seven people die as train slams into landslide in 'horrific' crash in northern Italy

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At least seven people were killed today and twenty others seriously injured after an Italian train slammed into a landslide leaving one carriage balanced precariously over a river.

Rescuers described the scene as 'horrific' as they scrambled through the mangled wreckage of the carriages, pulling dead and injured passengers free to rush them to hospital.

Officials said that they could not rule out other victims in the crash, which involved a regional train and took place at Tarres near Merano in northern Italy.

Firefighters were frantically trying to secure the front carriage of the two-coach train to stop it falling into the River Adige.

Amazingly, it was being kept upright by two trees which had been dragged down by the landslide.

Florian Schrofenneger, a local railway spokesman in the area, said: 'It appears that at least seven people have been killed and twenty others injured.

'It a high possibility that there will be other victims. The situation is very difficult, it is a horrific scene with one carriage balanced on the edge over the River Adige.

'A mechanical failure has been ruled out and it looks as if it hit a landslide. The train was very busy at the time as it was a local commuter service.'

The accident happened at around 9am this morning local time and the train - which was running on a picturesque mountain line that had only opened five years ago - had been due to arrive at Merano 45 minutes later.

A fleet of ambulances was used to ferry the injured to local hospitals and a nearby road was shut to traffic to enable emergency vehicles to have easier access.

It is the second major rail accident in Italy in less than a year - last June thirty people were killed after a freight train carrying inflammable gas derailed at Viareggio.