Updated 2.43pm

A TRAIN HAS been derailed by a landslide in a mountainous part of eastern Switzerland.

The regional rail company confirmed the incident, with media reports that several carriages had plunged into a ravine.

“Part of the train was derailed by a landslide,” Rhaetische Bahn spokesman Simon Rageth told AFP, but said he was unable to give further details immediately.

At least two carriages have fallen into the ravine.

Peter Faerber, a spokesman for police in Switzerland’s southeastern Graubuenden canton, told Associated Press that some people were slightly injured in the accident but he could not immediately say how many.

Some of the passengers had to be rescued by helicopter.

There are eyewitness reports of several casualties, according to 20min.ch. Four helicopters are involved in the rescue operation.

Police divers are en route to the scene, as it believed some of the carriages may have fallen into water.

Blick.ck reports that it had been raining for several hours beforehand. There were as many as 200 people on the train, the paper reported.

An eye witness told Blick that as many as 10 people were in one of the fallen carriages.

Reporting by Nicky Ryan, Associated Press, and © AFP, 2014

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