This paper investigates the state and fault estimation problem for linear continuous-time switched systems with simultaneous disturbances, sensor and actuator faults, and two types of observer approaches are presented to solve this design issue. The first one is a linear descriptor reduced-order observer, which generates the exact estimation of state and sensor faults together with disturbances by decoupling them from the state vector without any supplementary design. The second one refers to a descriptor sliding mode observer approach, where the state, disturbances, sensor and actuator faults can be reconstructed simultaneously. In the second method, the reachability of sliding surface is not necessary to be investigated, since the actuator faults can be estimated directly without using the equivalent output error injection scheme as in traditional sliding mode observers. Therefore, both developed observer approaches avoid the sliding surface switching problem of traditional sliding mode observers in application to switched systems. Finally, an example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the two designed observer methods. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.