TURIN – Five railway workers were run down and killed by a local train travelling at 160 kph as they were working to repair a stretch of track between Turin and Milan in one of the worst of Italy’s recent rash of industrial accidents, railway officials said.

 The train driver, who was being treated for shock, evidently had no idea that workmen were on the track as the train ploughed into them a short time before midnight on Wednesday. The Ferrovia dello Stato blamed a “communications breakdown,” for the accident.

 Two other workmen on the stretch of track 1 km from a station at Brandizzo narrowly escaped being killed and were under observation in a local hospital.

 Magistrates opened an inquiry into the accident. The train had been shunting wagons from one station to another and investigators were trying to determine why it was travelling so fast.

 jp