Up to 15 people are now known to have died after a commuter train collided with a freight train in Los Angeles.

Firefighters pull people from wreckage in LA

TV footage showed firefighters pulling people from the wreckage of the Metrolink commuter train, which was thought to be carrying around 350 passengers.

Carriages have been derailed, and are scattered across the tracks.

The incident happened as commuters travelled home from work in the Chatsworth suburb in western LA.

The Los Angeles mayor said between 10 and 15 people are now known to have died in the crash.

Earlier, the County Sheriff’s Department said between 30 and 40 people were injured in the incident, which happened at around 4.30 pm US time, some 30 miles north-west of LA.

A Metrolink spokeswoman said the cause of the crash is not yet known, but an investigation is underway.

“Clearly something went wrong,” she said. “There was a failure somewhere along the line.

“There are many fail-safes, but we’re still dealing with human beings and mechanical devices, so after we have ascertained that our passengers are off that train and everyone is in good condition, then we’ll start investigating the actual crash itself.”

The number 111 commuter was travelling between Los Angeles and Moorpark, some 47 miles north-west of California’s largest city.

Emergency helicopters airlifted the seriously wounded to hospitals.

LA Fire Department captain Armando Hogan said some 100 fire personnel were at the scene. Many of the injuries were “mostly from people being kind of jolted around,” he said.

In January 2005, a Metrolink train hit a Jeep that had been parked on the train tracks in Atwater Village, killing 11 people.

The 29-year-old man who deliberately left the vehicle there was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences.