Train derails near Milan, killing at least 3 and injuring dozens

ROME — A commuter train derailed near Milan on Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others, at least five of them seriously.

The central carriages of the train, operated by the government-owned rail company Trenord, jumped the tracks near the town of Pioltello, about eight miles east of Milan. At least two of the cars struck power poles, and one was badly mangled, bent almost at a right angle.

An official with Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the company that manages the tracks, said that experts had determined there had been a “structural failure” of the tracks about a mile from where the train had derailed but that it was “premature to say whether that was the cause.