South African beer train crashes, police battle looters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Hundreds of looters battled police all weekend at the site of a beer train wreck, damaging vehicles in violence that left one woman dead, police said on Monday as they kept a heavy guard on the remaining alcohol.

The train carrying 180,000 crates of beer from South African Breweries derailed on Friday night near Waterval Boven, 200 km east of Johannesburg, Superintendent Izak van Zyl said.

By Saturday morning, police were fighting off up to 200 people from the nearby township.

"It was a lot of trouble from one train crash," he said. "They were firing rubber bullets into the crowd. The issue was the beer. I don't think anyone expected a situation like this."

Early in the afternoon, a 19-year-old woman in the crowd fell under the wheels of a truck from state rail operator Spoornet, he said. She was declared dead at the scene.

Police handed the site over to railway security staff but were back again on Sunday morning, firing more rubber bullets as looters converged on the train. Officers raided nearby houses, recovered three out of 500 missing cases and arrested six.

Van Zyl said 20 officers would remain at the site until the overturned wagons and surviving beer crates could be recovered.

"They're telling us it could take a week," he said. "We will keep assessing the situation but we believe that if we left they would come back for the beer."