World Notes

It may prove to be the worst rail disaster in Portugal's history. At 2:40 p.m. last Wednesday, the seven-coach Sud Express, carrying hundreds of Portuguese emigrant workers, pulled out of the main station at Oporto, on Portugal's Atlantic coast, and headed east, destination Paris. Two hours later, a westbound local rumbled out of the Guarda station, some 80 miles southeast of Oporto, and sped toward its final destination, the city of Coimbra. But a fatal miscalculation, which railway officials later attributed to "human error," permitted the two trains to pursue their opposing courses along the same track.

At 6:40 p.m., the express and the local collided head on in the hills of northern Portugal. Several of the cars were crushed; at least five burst into flames. The blaze, said one fireman, was as hot as "the incinerator in a crematorium." The collision resulted in at least 50 deaths and 100 injuries. By week's end, as rescue operations continued, more than 50 of the estimated 530 passengers aboard the two trains were still unaccounted for. Because many of the bodies were badly burned, only 18 victims had been identified.