Officials are investigating the causes of the crash, which took out the two central carriages of the commuter service.
ROME — A commuter train derailed near Milan on Thursday morning, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others, at least five of them seriously.
The central carriages of the train, operated by the government-owned rail company Trenord, jumped the tracks near the town of Pioltello, about eight miles east of Milan. At least two of the cars struck power poles, and one was badly mangled, bent almost at a right angle.
An official with Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the company that manages the tracks, said that experts had determined there had been a “structural failure” of the tracks about a mile from where the train had derailed but that it was “premature to say whether that was the cause.”
Luciana Lamorgese, the prefect, or central government administrator, in Milan, told reporters that “investigations were still underway.”
Tiziana Siciliano, the prosecutor put in charge of investigating the accident, said that the train had been “very crowded” and that many of the injured passengers had been taken to Milanese hospitals. Those with lighter injuries were taken to two schools in Pioltello.
Ms. Siciliano said the train’s conductor, who was not injured, had spoken to investigators, but she declined to describe what he had said.
The train, traveling from Cremona, was full of commuters and schoolchildren and was headed to Milan, Italy’s financial capital, where it was due to arrive at 7:24 a.m. The accident occurred shortly before 7.
Commuters to Milan took to social media to denounce the conditions — including overcrowded, often tardy trains — that they were forced to endure. On its website, Trenord noted that 740,000 people in the Lombardy region commuted by train every day.
Milan’s police chief, Marcello Cardona, said that the causes of the crash would be investigated “calmly and with professionalism,” and that all hypotheses would be taken into consideration.
One passenger told the Italian news agency ANSA that the train had begun to shake shortly before the accident.
Another passenger, who was in one of the carriages that derailed, said the train had been traveling at a normal speed. Speaking to the news channel Sky TG24, he described a chaotic scene in the moments after the coach suddenly veered, including the sight of a man next to him who appeared to have a broken leg.
“I am just glad to be alive,” he said.
