AT least nine people are reported killed and 70 injured in a peak-hour collision between two Metro subway trains on a busy commuter line in Washington DC.

The accident- the worst on the Metro system for 33 years – happened on a surface section between Fort Totten and Takoma Park stations at 5 pm, local time, on Monday 22 June. The female driver of the moving train, which collided with the rear of a stationary train, was among the dead.

Around 200 firefighters and medical services attended the scene, at which 76 people were treated and six sent to hospital with critical injuries. People are believed to be still trapped in one of the coaches, which sustained severe compression.

Both six-car trains involved were heading into the city, so were less crowded than those travelling to the suburbs, and the accident, which is being investigated, is the Metro network’s first involving passenger fatalities since 1982 when three people were killed in a derailment.