Cable Train Fire in Austria

K A P R U N, Austria, Nov. 12 -- Officials raised the death toll from 155 to up to 175 people that may have died in the fire that engulfed a cable train packed with skiers as it traveled through an Alpine tunnel on Saturday.

Franz Schausberger, provincial governor of Salzburg, told a news conference the identity of 155 victims had been established with 90 percent certainty. Eight of those identified were U.S. citizens.

The fire began as the funicular train made its ascent up Austria’s 3,500-yard Kitzsteinhorn mountain.

Schausberger said the casualty figures included three people who died of smoke inhalation at the top of the 2.5 mile tunnel. They were more than a mile and a half from the train, but the smoke was so hot and toxic that it killed them.

Twelve people managed to escape from the terrifying blaze in the steep tunnel near Kaprun, southwest of Salzburg, but one was seriously injured. Including several firefighters who were injured, 18 people are still being treated in hospital while 10 others have been released.

Officials believe the fire started at the lower end ofthe single-carriage train at around 9 a.m. soon after it beganits ascent up the 45-degree incline.

Those who escaped were at the bottom end of the vehicle,which came to a halt some 656 yards inside the tunnel. Theymanaged to break windows and free themselves.

But the remaining passengers are likely to have been quicklyengulfed by fire or overcome by deadly smoke as the blaze racedupwards.

It was unclear whether there was anyone except the driver onboard a second train which was descending through the tunnel.But as the accident happened, that train, whichalso became stranded, was likely to have been virtually empty.

Champion Skier Among Dead

Among those killed was freestyle skier Sandra Schmitt, a German world champion, and her parents.

Schmitt, 19, claimed the moguls title at the 1999 freestyle world championships at Meiringen in Switzerland.

“This accident marks the greatest tragedy in the history of skiing as a sport,” Helmut Weinbuch, head of the German Skiing Federation, told the federation’s official Web site.