Six people were killed and 16 people injured on Wednesday when a train with 131 passengers on board was hit by debris from a passing train.
According to officials, the accident occurred shortly before 7.35 a.m. on a bridge linking Denmark’s two main islands.
“There was a very, very loud bang and then the train stopped,” a witness who had been on-board the train with his daughter told broadcaster TV2.
Banedanmark, which maintains and controls traffic on the railway network said the train was hit by what could have been tarpaulin.
TV footage showed the halted freight train carrying packaging for Danish beer maker, Carlsberg.
A Carlsberg spokesman said a freight train operated by DB Cargo, the logistics arm of the German railway company, Deutsche Bahn DBN.UL, carrying goods for Carlsberg between its Fredericia brewery and Copenhagen, had been involved in the accident.
“Terrible train accident on the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark as a result of the storm Alfrida. Our thoughts are with the injured and with the families and relatives of the dead,” Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, said in a tweet.
The bridge was closed for both trains and vehicles towards the island of Funen, while car traffic towards Zealand had opened again.
The 18-kilometre long bridge is part of infrastructure that links Denmark and Sweden to Germany.
