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A tram has derailed and smashed into a building in Milan, killing two people and injuring 38 others, police told AFP.
One of the dead was hit by the tram as it derailed and the second victim was a passenger, the city’s mayor Giuseppe Sala told reporters at the scene.
Firemen wrapped shocked passengers in emergency blankets, while ambulances took the more seriously injured to hospital.
The accident came only days after Milan finished hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics. It is preparing to host the Paralympics and is currently staging Milan Fashion Week.
“There was a man who was trapped under the tram, his arm was trapped,” witness Valerio Gaglione told AFP.
Prosecutor Marcello Viola, the lead investigator, said the impact between the tram and the building was “devastating”.
One victim was an Italian in his 60s.
The other was a Senegalese man who died on the way to hospital, media reported.
An initial investigation suggested the driver had not activated a track switch. He had also run through the last stop on the line before the accident, Sala said.
The tram was new and the driver had years of experience. His shift had only begun an hour before the accident, Sala said.
“It doesn’t look like it was a technical issue, but was connected to the driver,” he added.
The driver, hospitalised but not seriously injured, said he had “felt ill” before the crash, according to media reports.
A video widely shared on Italian media from a car cam showed the tram leaning over to one side as it raced into a curve towards the building, before lurching to the other side and crashing.
As the tram careens past, a delivery man can be seen leaping to safety from his bicycle, while a passerby also races out of the way.
‘Enormous bang’
“I just heard an enormous bang,” a 27-year-old called Anna, who was in her office nearby when the crash happened, told AFP.
