March 16, 1999
Web posted at: 1:34 a.m. EST (0634 GMT)

BOURBONNAIS, Illinois (CNN) -- An Amtrak train carrying between 200 and 400 passengers has derailed after hitting a truck south of Chicago, officials said.

Firefighters are combing the wreckage, looking for trapped passengers as smoke billows from the wreckage of overturned cars.

Early reports from officials indicated that some passengres were injured, but an official number of injured has not yet been released.

A nursing supervisor at Riverside Medical Center in nearby Kankakee said seven victims had been brought to the hospital, including one person with an amputated foot and another with head injuries.

The train, known as the City of New Orleans, runs between Chicago and New Orleans. It derailed about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Chicago at about 9:40 p.m. Monday near Bourbonnais, a police dispatcher said.

A witness to the accident told WBBM-AM radio that she could see flames inside several of the passenger cars. An Amtrak manager in Wilmington, Delaware, however, said there was a small fire in one engine but it was under control.

The manager, who did not give her name, said two engines overturned and four passenger cars derailed. Thirty people have been taken to two hospitals, she said. None was in critical condition, she said.

Amtrak spokeswoman Debbie Hare said the train was made up of two engines and 14 passengers cars. She did not know the exact number of passengers on board.

Hare said there were reports that the semi-trailer truck that collided with the train was carrying a heavy load of steel.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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