UP TO 15 people died and 150 were injured after a packed commuter train was involved in a high-speed crash today.

The tragedy happened when a Land Rover on a trailer came off the nearby M62 and toppled onto the track.

The trailer driver got out and made a frantic 999 call but then watched helplessly as a freight train smashed into the vehicle.

Seconds later, an InterCity train bound for London approached the scene at 125 miles an hour but its driver was unable to stop the packed train ploughing into the wreckage.

All nine carriages of the high-speed GNER InterCity service were derailed after it collided with the freight train, which was carrying coal.

Of the 150 people injured, 56 were taken to nearby hospitals, where 30, including the InterCity train driver were described as seriously hurt.

The accident happened on the East Coast main line at the village of Great Heck, near Selby, North Yorkshire, at 6.12am and involved the 4.45am Newcastle-to-London GNER 225 electric train.

The Freightliner freight train was travelling from the port of Immingham on Humberside to Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire.

It was carrying imported coal in brand-new 100-tonne capacity wagons.

Two members of the clergy could be seen at the accident scene, where 100 firefighters were battling to rescue injured passengers.

The crash site was one of total devastation.

The force of the impact mangled carriages of the InterCity service and sliced off wheels. The front three carriages appeared to have been smashed from the rest of the GNER train.

The first carriage was almost vertical, lying back on the second one, while a third ended up in a

field next to the track, which was surrounded by debris from the collision.

Police said the driver of the Land Rover had called the emergency services moments before the crash to tell them that his car had careered off the road and on to the train tracks.

As he spoke to the operator he shouted that a train was coming and watched as the train ploughed through his car and trailer before coming off the tracks.

''At 6.12am this morning we had a call from a man who said he had been in a road accident,'' said a spokesman for North Yorkshire Police. ''He was on the M62 going west, not far from the A1.

''The vehicle, he said, had left the M62, gone down an embankment and the vehicle was on the railway line.

''While the operator was speaking to him we heard him shout: 'The train's coming', and then there was a bang.

''The man, who was slightly injured, said the train has just crashed through his Land Rover which was towing a trailer with a car on it. The train has continued and the vehicle was not on the line.

''At this point 999 calls started coming in saying a train had derailed and that was the origins of the major incident we are now dealing with,'' the spokesman said.

GNER said services between London and Leeds, while a train shuttle service was operating between York and Newcastle.

Bad weather was hampering attempts to reach the crash victims.

A spokesman for Humberside Fire Service, who are working with other forces from the region to help rescue passengers from the train, said: ''The number of casualties is so large that they have set up a triage area on an adjacent farm so that people can be treated before they are taken to hospital by helicopter or ambulance.''

He said their ability to calculate the number of casualties had been hampered because each carriage had been disfigured as a result of the crash.

''It's not simple getting into the carriages because they have all been deformed.''

The Health and Safety Executive said three of its Railway Inspectorate team were on their way to the crash site to start their investigation and Deputy Prime Minister was due to visit the scene later today.

Mr Prescott said: ''This is a dreadful accident at Selby. Our immediate concern is for the passengers who have died and others who have suffered so tragically.

''The emergency services have responded very quickly and have been on the scene in great numbers with their equipment doing everything to treat and free the injured and get them to hospital.''

People living near the scene described the horror of the accident.

David Chandler, 42, a print manager, said: ''My wife and I only live 200 yards away from the railway line.

''We were woken up by a horrible, weird crunching minutes before 6.15am.''

He said at 7am he heard sirens from police cars and ambulances.

''About half and hour later ambulances from across the region started flooding into the village.

''I've just had a walk up there to see what was happening.

''All I could see was a mass of piled up carriages lying just outside the village and I could see the front of a freight train.

''I couldn't see any injured people from where I was but there's been a constant stream of ambulances for the last 45 minutes.''

An NHS spokeswoman said the ''walking wounded'' were being taken to York District Hospital.

Other casualties were being taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Pontefract General Infirmary and Hull Royal Infirmary.

Leeds General Infirmary was not being used at the moment, but that may change, she added.

A spokeswoman at Pontefract General Infirmary said: ''Casualties are arriving. The car park is full of ambulances.

''We can't say yet how many there are or in what state they are in, but it is very very busy here.''