Two investigations are under way after at least eight people were killed and dozens were injured in a train crash near the Sicilian city of Messina.

The authorities have offered conflicting accounts of the accident, but it appears that the Venice-bound train - carrying nearly 200 passengers - derailed and then hit a bridge as it approached a station.

Some of the train's seven carriages and the locomotive then tumbled into a ditch.

Rescue workers, army officers and police laboured at the scene throughout the night trying to free people who were trapped in the wreckage of the train.

The incident occurred at about 1900 local time (1700 GMT) on Saturday, near the Rometta Marea station, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Messina.

"The train skidded, and suitcases started falling from everywhere," one distraught female passenger told Italian television.

"People were screaming, trying to get out of the windows. It was absolutely terrible."

The injured were taken to Palermo and Messina for treatment

One of the drivers was among the dead, the other seven were passengers.

They include a Sri Lankan couple, a 24-year-old Sicilian woman who lived in Germany, a 76-year-old pensioner and three other victims who have not yet been identified.

Others, including the train's second driver, suffered serious injuries and have been taken to hospitals in Messina and the Sicilian capital of Palermo.

One child passenger was reported to have been so badly injured that she could not immediately be moved from the site.

Underinvestment

The train, an overnight express travelling from the Sicilian capital Palermo to Venice, was due to arrive at its destination at around 0800 GMT on Sunday.

It is not yet known what caused the train to come off the rails, but two official inquiries have already been launched - one by the train company and one by Sicilian magistrates.

Media reports say the incident recalls a fatal rail accident on the same Palermo to Messina line in 1979, when two trains collided at a spot just kilometres away from the scene of Saturday's incident, leaving 12 people dead.

Correspondents say some Italian MPs, on hearing of the incident, were quick to raise the lack of investment in transport on the island, one of the poorest areas of Italy.