BUENOS AIRES // A packed commuter train slammed into a retaining wall at a railway terminus in Buenos Aires during rush hour yesterday, leaving at least 49 dead, 675 injured, and dozens trapped in the wreckage.
"The train was full and the impact was tremendous," a passenger identified only as Ezequiel told local television, adding that medics at the scene appeared overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.
Witnesses said the train's brakes failed as it was arriving at the Once station on the western outskirts of Argentina's capital.
Passengers were hurled on top of each other and knocked to the floor of the train, some losing consciousness and others seriously injured, they said.
"Unfortunately, we must report that there are 49 dead in the accident," including a child, police spokesman Nestor Rodriguez told a news conference.
Civil defence officials said that at least 675 people were hurt in the crash, 200 of them seriously.
Medevac helicopters landed in the street outside the station to ferry the most seriously wounded to hospitals, as ambulances raced in and out of the area.
"There were people who were crushed and shouting desperately. I saw bodies and blood all over the place," said passenger Alejandro Velazquez.
The government called for two days of mourning and suspended Carnival celebrations, including a massive parade planned in Buenos Aires tomorrow.
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner suspended a news conference on the dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands following news of the crash.
Condolences from the British minister of state for Latin America, Jeremy Browne, were among numerous foreign sympathy messages sent to Argentina.
Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said the train entered the station at a speed of 20 kilometres (12 miles) an hour and failed to stop, crashing into a retaining wall at the end of the track.
"It was a very serious accident," he said at a news conference. "Cars piled up on top of each other and one them went six metres inside another car."
Dozens were trapped in the twisted wreckage of the first and second carriages.
Firefighters and rescue workers had to break through skylights in the train's roofs to reach those trapped inside.
The train's driver was injured but rescue workers pried him loose from the wreckage of his cabin. He was 28 years old and had an excellent record, according to Schiavi.
The Sarmiento rail line, owned by private company TBA, links the centre of Buenos Aires to a densely populated suburb 70 kilometres to the west of the city. It uses rolling stock made in Japan and was acquired in the 1960s.
TBA said it did not know the cause of the crash and would bring "all information and videos to the courts."
Twelve hours after the crash, families of missing passengers desperately searched hospitals, the morgue and a public cemetery where dozens of bodies were taken.
Authorities gave lists of hundreds of wounded, but the identities of many of the deceased and wounded remained unknown.
"I was in five hospitals and I couldn't find my wife," said a man who gave his name as Jose and said his pregnant wife had been in one of the first cars.
"They told us there are people being operated on and they don't know who they are. There's no way to know until they come out of surgery," said Luisa, looking for her 24-year-old son.
TV channels broadcast photographs of missing people as social networks filled with messages from people searching for information.
The Bolivian embassy said one of its workers was missing and had presumably been on the train.
The toll from yesterday's crash surpassed the city's last major rail disaster just five months ago when two trains and a bus collided during rush hour, killing 11 people and injuring more than 200.
The region's transit system has been plagued with serious accidents in recent years.
In March 2008, 18 people were killed and 47 injured when a bus was hit by a train in Dolores, 212 kilometres south of Buenos Aires.
Argentina's deadliest train tragedy was in 1970, an accident that killed 236 people in northern Buenos Aires.
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The biog
Fast facts on Neil Armstrong’s personal life:
- Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio
- He earned his private pilot’s license when he was 16 – he could fly before he could drive
- There was tragedy in his married life: Neil and Janet Armstrong’s daughter Karen died at the age of two in 1962 after suffering a brain tumour. She was the couple’s only daughter. Their two sons, Rick and Mark, consulted on the film
- After Armstrong departed Nasa, he bought a farm in the town of Lebanon, Ohio, in 1971 – its airstrip allowed him to tap back into his love of flying
- In 1994, Janet divorced Neil after 38 years of marriage. Two years earlier, Neil met Carol Knight, who became his second wife in 1994
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
