Man killed in Belgian train derailment confirmed to be passenger

The young man killed in a train derailment on Saturday in Leuven, a city east of Belgian capital Brussels, was confirmed to be a passenger, the Leuven prosecutor's office said.

A spokesperson for the Leuven prosecutor's office said the deceased victim, a 21-year-old man from Walloon Brabant, a province south of Brussels, was on board the train, citing experts who arrived on the scene following the incident.

Earlier reports quoting a local mayor suggested the ill-fated man was not on the train and was not a passenger.

The incident occurred around 13:13 (GMT 1213) local time when a train en route from Leuven to west Belgium's coastal city of De Panne derailed just several hundred meters away from the Leuven railway station for a reason yet to be determined, the Belgian railway network operator Infrabel said. One of the carriages lied on its side.

It was believed that the derailment of the train carrying around 85 passengers left one person killed and 27 others injured.

The young man's body had been evacuated. The way he came under the railcar remained to be determined, according to local media reports.

Rail services passing through the Leuven railway station have been heavily disrupted, according to Infrabel and the country's national train service SNCB.

SNCB and Infrabel will lead an investigation to determine the cause of the derailment, while federal authorities will lead another investigation as one person died in the incident. Endit