Fri 02 April 2021:
A passenger train smashed into a truck on its tracks and partially derailed just outside a rail tunnel along Taiwan’s east coast Friday, killing at least 34 people, injuring dozens and leaving dozens trapped, local police said. Survivors were climbing out of windows and onto train car roofs to reach safety.
At least 70 other people are also believed to be trapped in the wreckage.
Officials in Hualien County said rescue efforts were continuing.
It was Taiwan’s deadliest train crash in decades.
The transport ministry also said some 40 injured passengers had already been sent to hospital with others in the process of being admitted. About people are thought to remain trapped.
Emergency services earlier reported “multiple persons with no vital signs” of life.
The Central Emergency Operation Center said rescuers were trying to get to four carriages inside the tunnel that were badly damaged and difficult to access.
It occurred near the Toroko Gorge scenic area around 9 a.m. on a public holiday.
There were 350 passengers on board, authorities said. Local media said many were standing because the train was so full and were tossed all around by the crash.
The train was an express heading from Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, to Taitung, a city on the island nation’s southeast coast, the Reuters news agency reported. It was packed with tourists and people heading home at the start of the long holiday weekend, Reuters added.
A brief video released by the centre from inside the tunnel showed rescuers arriving on the scene and a twisted carriage door.
Images showed an injured passenger being stretched out of the crash scene, her head and neck in a brace, passengers gathering suitcases and bags in a tilted, derailed carriage and others walking out of the tunnel on the roof of the train.
Reports said a truck fell from a cliff above and landed on the tracks, where a train emerging from a tunnel smashed into it. With much of the train still trapped in the tunnel, escaping passengers were forced to scale doors, windows and roofs to reach safety.
The truck apparently hit after the locomotive had emerged, causing the greatest damage to cars 1-5, according to Hualien County’s rescue department.
Agence France-Presse says Hualien County Police Chief Tsai Ding-hsien told reporters the truck was “a construction vehicle that didn’t park properly and slid onto the rail track. This is our initial understanding and we are clarifying the cause of the incident.”
Local media images from the scene showed the back of a yellow flatbed truck sitting on its side next to the train, AFP added.
On Twitter, the island’s president Tsai Ing-wen said emergency services had been “fully mobilized” to rescue and assist passengers and railway staff.
“We will continue to do everything we can to ensure their safety in the wake of this heartbreaking incident,” she wrote.
