Crews use hydraulic cranes to pull apart Belgian trains

Crews pull Belgian train wrecks apart

BRUSSELS — Work crews began separating two trains Thursday, three days after they collided near Brussels killing 18 people.

Public transit workers across Belgium were to stage a minute of silence in memory of those who died in the crash.

Tuesday’s collision has caused the suspension of the high-speed rail service between London and Brussels and seriously disrupted the Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam service. The Brussels-London Eurostar will be out of service until at least next Monday.

Officials said it may take eight days to clear and repair the tracks and power lines outside the Brussels suburb of Buizingen.

Two rail cars equipped with hydraulic cranes were used to pull apart the trains that collided nearly head-on.

EU officials have said the crash shows the need for Europe to quickly install a fail-safe signaling system across its patchwork of rail networks. Officials have retrieved the two black box data recorders that can confirm if one commuter train ran a red light and collided almost head-on with another as it shifted onto a merging track.

The crash caused 18 deaths and more bodies may be found, officials said. In all, 171 people were injured.