MILAN • At least three people were killed and 10 seriously injured when a packed regional train derailed in Milan in northern Italy, emergency services said.

Hours after the crash yesterday, rescuers continued to search for passengers inside the wreckage. One of the carriages was lying across the track, bent almost at a right angle.

About 100 other people sustained light injuries, Ms Cristina Corbetta, an official with the regional emergency services in Milan, told Sky TG24.

She said the incident happened early in the morning near Segrate in Milan's north-eastern suburbs. The cause was not immediately clear.

Many of the passengers were travelling to work in Italy's economic capital, or were students.

It is the most serious rail accident in Italy since 23 people were killed in a high-speed head-on collision between two passenger trains in July 2016 in the southern Puglia region.

One woman told the newspaper La Repubblica that her daughter had called her on her phone to say, "Mummy, help, the train is derailing," as the accident happened. Since then, the woman said there has been no reply on her daughter's telephone.

Italian media quoted witnesses as saying the train began to shake heavily as if it was travelling over rocks. Then it braked suddenly and derailed.

Milan prosecutors have opened a probe into the accident, and investigators have begun questioning the driver, Italian media said.

The train belonged to the Lombardy regional rail company Trenord, which is owned in equal parts by the public company Trenitalia and Ferrovie Nord Milano.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE