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A 16-year-old girl who died after being trapped under a light rail carriage in Sydney's Chinatown area has been identified as Kyra Dulguime.

Tributes flowed for the 16-year-old on Thursday, with many posting farewells on social media.

"I just can't believe that you're gone," Bhernz Escoro Cepe-Dedumo wrote on Facebook.

"Rest in peace in the arms of our lord and may the perpetual light shine upon you."

Ms Dulguime was named on Thursday by multiple media outlets.

Emergency services were called to George St in the Haymarket district about midnight on Wednesday following reports a person had become trapped under a carriage.

Police rescue squad officers and Fire and Rescue crews worked for two hours to free the critically injured girl but she was unable to be saved.

Police are investigating whether the girl was trying to cross over the link between the carriages when she became trapped, a NSW Police spokesperson told AAP.

Witnesses told Nine News the teenager was with a friend when she tried to cross George St by crossing the link.

The girl became trapped beneath the carriagge in front of dozens of witnesses and shocked passengers rushed to her aid after the tram stopped.

"We were screaming, 'help her, help her', so the police and paramedics ... rushed to the spot," one witness said.

Footage of the rescue showed emergency crews using hydraulic tools and wooden blocks to lift the tram.

The 52-year-old tram driver was taken to hospital for mandatory testing.

Transport for NSW secretary Howard Collins issued a statement on Thursday extending condolences to the girl's family.

"Everyone at Transport for NSW is saddened by the death of a teenage girl at a light rail stop in central Sydney overnight," he said.

"We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends and loved ones.

"We thank emergency services, staff and anyone who rendered assistance for their efforts last night, and we will provide our staff with the support they need."

© AAP 2023

The publisher of a British tabloid has apologised to Prince Harry for unlawfully seeking information about him, at the start of a lawsuit the royal is bringing over alleged "industrial-scale" phone-hacking in which he is due to give evidence.

Harry, 38, and 100 celebrities including actors, sports stars, singers and TV personalities, are suing publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), accusing its titles of habitually accessing private information by widespread phone-hacking, deception and other illicit means between 1991 and 2011.

The claimants say the unlawful behaviour at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People had occurred with the full knowledge of senior editors and top executives who they say knew about it, approved it and actively covered it up.

The titles are owned by Reach.

MGN is contesting the allegations, arguing some claims have been brought too late, and rejecting most others such as saying there was no evidence Harry, known officially as the Duke of Sussex and the younger son of King Charles, was a victim of hacking.

It denies any senior figures had knowledge of unlawful acts.

However, in documents to the High Court in London, MGN did admit on one occasion a private investigator had been engaged to unlawfully gather evidence about him at a London nightclub in 2004, saying it "unreservedly apologises and accepts that (Harry) is entitled to appropriate compensation".

"The fee paid (75 pounds ($A140)) suggests little work was involved," said MGN's lawyers, adding they did not know to what it related and it was not part of the Duke of Sussex's claim.

Harry, who was not present for the start of the hearing, has been selected as one of four test cases for the seven-week trial and is due to give evidence himself in person in early June, the first royal to do so since the 19th century, according to local media.

"Prince or not, the blatantly unlawful and illegal methods that were used by the defendant to get every piece of information about his life away from royal duties was quite frankly appalling," David Sherborne, the lawyer representing Harry and the other claimants, told the court on Wednesday.

"No one should have been subjected to that."

Among the MGN figures Sherborne said must have known about the "industrial scale" hacking was high-profile media figure Piers Morgan, the Daily Mirror editor from 1995 to 2004.

In his written court submission, Sherborne said former Mirror employees had recounted how Morgan knew about it.

In an interview with the BBC, Morgan said he had never told anyone to hack a phone.

"There is no evidence that I knew anything about any of it," he said.

Asked if he was worried about the legal action, he said: "No, not at all."

The Mirror case is just one of four Harry is currently pursuing against newspapers, saying it was his duty to expose "criminality" committed by the tabloids.

Since stepping down from their royal roles in 2020, Harry and his wife Meghan have lashed out at both the press and the palace, including those working for his brother Prince William and his stepmother, Queen Camilla, saying they had colluded in media "lies".

In its court submissions, MGN's lawyers said many of the about 140 stories that Harry claims must have come by unlawful means had in fact been briefed by royal aides.

"Many came from information disclosed by or on behalf of royal households or members of the royal family," the publishers' lawyers said.

However, a document submitted by Harry's lawyers detailed incidents of "highly suspicious" calls made by MGN to his friends, aides and family, including his sister-in-law Kate, the Princess of Wales.

It also alleged that 267 payments were made to investigators to look into Harry and those close to him, including Charles, William and Harry's late mother Princess Diana.

MGN's behaviour had ultimately led his split from ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, the document added.

© RAW 2023

Donald Trump sexually abused magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by branding her a liar, a New York jury has ruled.

Carrroll was awarded $US5 million ($A7.4 million) in damages.

"Today, the world finally knows the truth," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

"This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed."

The former US president - campaigning to retake the White House in 2024 - will appeal, his lawyer Joseph Tacopina told reporters outside the Manhattan federal courthouse.

Carroll, 79, testified during the civil trial that Trump, 76, raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996, then harmed her reputation by writing in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform that her claims were a "complete con job," "a hoax" and "a lie".

Trump was absent throughout the trial which began on April 25. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the verdict a "disgrace" and said, "I have absolutely no idea who this woman is."

Because it was a civil case, Trump faces no criminal consequences and, as such, there was never a threat of prison.

The jury, required to reach a unanimous verdict, deliberated for just under three hours. Its six men and three women awarded Carroll $US5 million ($A7.4 million) in compensatory and punitive damages, but Trump will not have to pay so long as the case is on appeal.

President from 2017 to 2021, Trump is the front-runner in opinion polls for the Republican presidential nomination and has shown an uncanny ability to weather controversies that might sink other politicians.

It seems unlikely in America's polarised political climate that the civil verdict will have an impact on Trump's core supporters, who view his legal woes as part of a concerted effort by opponents to undermine him.

His poll numbers improved after he was charged last month with falsifying business records over a hush money payment to a porn star before his victory in the 2016 presidential election.

The first US president past or present to be criminally charged, Trump has pleaded not guilty and said the charges are politically motivated.

Carroll testified that she bumped into Trump at Bergdorf's and agreed to help him pick out a gift for another woman. The two looked at lingerie before he coaxed her into a dressing room, slammed her head into a wall, pulled down her tights and penetrated her, she testified. Carroll said she could not remember the precise date or year the alleged rape occurred.

Jurors were tasked with deciding whether Trump raped, sexually abused or forcibly touched Carroll, and were separately asked if Trump defamed Carroll. The jurors found Trump sexually abused her but not that he raped her.

Before the jurors began deliberating, Judge Lewis Kaplan defined rape for them as non-consensual "sexual intercourse" through "forcible compulsion." He described sexual abuse as non-consensual "sexual contact" through forcible compulsion.

Jurors awarded Carroll $US2 million ($A3 million) in compensatory damages and $US20,000 ($A29,600) in punitive damages for her battery claim, and $US2.7 million ($A4 million) in compensatory and $US280,000 ($A414,000) in punitive damages for her defamation claim.

Trump's legal team attacked the plausibility of Carroll's account including why she had never reported the matter to police or screamed during the alleged incident.

Two of Carroll's friends said that she told them about the alleged rape at the time but swore them to secrecy because she feared that Trump would use his fame and wealth to retaliate if she came forward.

While Trump did not testify at the trial, a video clip from the October 2022 deposition showed him mistaking Carroll for one of his former wives in a black-and-white photo among several people at an event.

"It's Marla," Trump said in the deposition, referring to his second wife Marla Maples. Previously Trump had said he could not have raped Carroll because she was "not my type."

© AP 2023