A 72-year-old woman was struck and killed by a train Saturday night near the Rabbit Creek rifle range, according to the Alaska Railroad and Anchorage police.

An employee on an inbound coal train reported the incident at about 7 p.m., roughly a quarter mile south of the range, said police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker.

The train was returning from a coal run to Seward. Employees saw a woman standing still on the tracks from about 200 feet away -- not enough time to stop the train with emergency braking, said railroad spokeswoman Wendy Lindskoog.

"When they were blowing the horns she did not move off the tracks," Lindskoog said.

The train was going 45 miles an hour, the speed limit for that stretch of track, she said. A car was parked nearby with the woman's keys and purse inside, according to the railroad.

The train crew saw a flash of light just before the woman was hit, Lindskoog said. "Apparently the lady had a camera."

A railroad investigator will work with police to determine what happened, Parker said.

In July, a 42-year-old Anchorage man was killed by a train in while trying to save his dog, which had run onto the tracks near Montana Creek, north of Wasilla.

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