Death toll rises to 66 in east China train collision(1)

2008-04-28 17:14:04 [ Big Normal Small ]    　Comment

Photo taken on April 28, 2008, shows the site of the trains colliding accident, in east China's Shandong Province. Passenger train T195 en route from Beijing to Qingdao city in eastern China derailed and hit train 5034 early on Monday, causing "heavy casualties", witnesses and a government spokesman confirmed.(Xinhua Photo)

JINAN, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The death toll has climbed to 66 and 247 were hospitalized after an early Monday train collision in east China's Shandong Province, railway authorities confirmed.

Ministry of Railways said 51 of the injured passengers were in critical condition.

Among the injured passengers were four French nationals, all of whom have been hospitalized with bone fractures, a spokesman with the provincial foreign affairs office said.

Their identities were not known.

The casualties were from two passengers trains, one of which was en route from Beijing to Qingdao, a famous summer resort in Shandong and venue of the Olympic sailing competition, and the other, from Shandong's Yantai to Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu Province.

The train from Beijing, coded T195, derailed in the city of Zibo in Shandong Province at around 4:40 a.m. About 10 carriages toppled into a ditch.

The derailed train hit train 5034 and caused the latter to veer off its tracks, too.


Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang (Front, R2) conducts the rescue work at the site of the trains colliding accident, in Zibo, east China's Shandong Province, on April 28, 2008. Passenger train T195 en route from Beijing to Qingdao city in eastern China derailed and hit train 5034 early on Monday. The death toll has climbed to 66 and 247 were hospitalized, railway authorities confirmed. (Xinhua Photo)

PRE-DAWN CHAOS

The accident occurred in Hejiacun village, sandwiched between Zhoucun district and Wangcun railway station in the suburbs of Zibo, and about 70 kilometers east of the provincial capital Jinan.

"Most passengers were still asleep, but some were standing in the aisle waiting to get off at the Zibo Railway Station," said one passenger surnamed Zhang aboard the train from Beijing.

"I suddenly felt the train, like a roller coaster, toppled 90 degrees to one side and all the way to the other side. When it finally went off the tracks, many people fell on me and hot water poured out of the thermos flasks."

Zhang was wounded in the head. When she climbed out of the train window, she saw the train had toppled into the farmland beside the railway.

Many villagers voluntarily joined the rescue work, some smashing train windows with their farm tools to pull out the stranded passengers, while others brought food and water from home.

"I saw a girl who was trying to help her boyfriend out of the train, but he was dead," Zhang said.

Xu, a Beijing college student who was traveling to Qingdao, escaped from the wrecked train safe and sound. "I got a hard seat. No one was seriously injured in our carriage."

Many survivors also joined the rescue operation, using blankets and bed sheets from the sleeper cars as stretchers to carry out the seriously wounded.

"For a time, so many people were trying to make phone calls that the mobile communications network was congested and no one could get through," said Xu.

The city government of Zibo has sent a 1,500-member strong team to help and console the victims' families. Nine hotels and 34 rescue centers have been reserved for the victims' families.

Related:
﹣66 dead, 400 injured in train collision (2008-04-28 14:31:22)
﹣Death toll rises to 60 in east China train collision (2008-04-28 14:27:44)