A POINTS failure is thought to have caused a freight train to derail, crash through a fence and hit a number of vehicles at an Eastleigh goods yard.

An investigation is now under way into the accident that happened at a siding at Tower Lane about midnight.

Three vehicles were damaged when the wagons ploughed through the fence and into an adjacent yard belonging to H Young Transport. Nobody was injured.

Amanda Matthews, a spokeswoman for train depot owners Foster Yeoman, said: "The train had come up from our quarry in Somerset and was unloading at Eastleigh and was empty at the time.

"There was some manoeuvring at the time and there appears to have been a points failure. A full inquiry is now being carried out."

Officials from freight operators English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) said the derailment happened at low speed and involved two wagons which had been carrying gravel from a quarry in Somerset.

Graham Meiklejohn, a spokesman from EWS told the Daily Echo the last wagon derailed completely and the second last wagon partially derailed.

"Because of the proximity of the neighbouring fence the wagon went through it," he said.

A recovery and assessment is being carried out to determine what happened. There were no injuries on the site."

He added that operational staff had called the firm shortly after the accident to report what had happened.

It is understood that an American style camper van, a race car transporter and an articulated trailer -- all parked in the H Young yard -- were damaged in the incident.

Nobody at H Young was available for comment. But staff at nearby Wessex Galvanizing were working through the night and heard nothing.

One employee said: "We knew nothing about it until this morning. It is a good thing that nobody was hurt."

EWS said the train was made up of 15 wagons and had been shunting at low speed at the time of the derailment.

It comes as police continue investigations into the Berkshire train disaster that claimed seven lives and left 150 injured.

Several passengers were still being treated at Reading's Royal Berkshire Hospital last night following the tragedy at Ufton Nervet where the London to Plymouth express train hurtled into a car on a railway crossing.

A further six people are at North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke.