The brakes came on, railway officials said, because the locomotive had been severed from the rest of the 420-yard-long train. The engine sped alone unscathed for hundreds of yards until it came to a halt. Only at that point, said Gisel Lunig, an official investigator, did the driver realize what had happened.

The first two carriages immediately behind the locomotive seemed to have remained crookedly on the tracks. But others behind them careened over a leafy embankment, leaving their iron wheels in place as the carriages sheared away.

Then the bridge came crashing down, burying two cars full of people as five or six more cars -- it was difficult to know for certain because they folded together like playing cards -- created a sculpture of horror that rose up where the overpass had been.

''There was a loud noise, like a helicopter, a crashing, and then there were railway carriages in front of my door,'' said a woman living near the tracks, who asked not to be identified by name.

Then, for a moment, all was quiet.

''There was the silence of the dead,'' said Gerhard Bleyl, a former mine worker, who said he was among the first to arrive at the wreck. ''Then we saw about 20 or 30 people who had managed to escape. No one said anything. Then we heard whimpering and screams.''

A rescue worker who lives near the tracks said, ''There were legs, arms, from adults and children, men and women.''

Mr. Bleyl, whose home is also close to the tracks, said children could be heard crying for their mothers.