Two people dead after failed train-track rescue tragedy

A woman in her 30s and a man in his 20s are dead after being struck by a train at Berowra station. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

An attempt to retrieve an item from the train tracks at a northern Sydney station has ended in tragedy with the deaths of two people.

A woman in her 30s was being helped off the tracks at Berowra station, on the city's northern outskirts, by a man in his 20s when they were hit by a freight train about midnight on Friday, police said.