At least 43 dead, 211 injured after Chinese trains collide

Jul 24, 2011, 12:20 GMT

Beijing - At least 43 people were killed and 211 injured when a high-speed train ploughed into the back of another bullet train that had lost power in east China, officials said Sunday.

One train stalled after being struck by lightning late on Saturday, and the other train, running behind it, crashed into it, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing statements from the Ministry of Railways and the provincial emergency office.

The collision forced two carriages of the crippled train off the track, and four from the other train to derail and fall from a concrete bridge.

About 600 passengers were aboard the six carriages that derailed. A total of 1,400 passengers were on board the two trains. The accident occurred in Wenzhou City in the eastern province of Zhejiang at around 8.30 pm (1230 GMT).

'We were trapped in a carriage for more than an hour before five of us broke a window and crawled out,' Xinhua quoted a 40-year-old man who survived the crash as saying.

The trains involved were 'D' trains - first-generation bullet trains that have an average speed of about 150 km/h.

The bullet train that was struck, the D3115, was en route to the provincial capital Hangzhou from Fuzhou, capital of the neighbouring province of Fujian. The train that hit the crippled train, the D301, was en route to Fuzhou from Beijing.

Photos of the scene posted on China's Twitter-like microblog service Sina Weibo appeared to show one rail carriage standing almost vertical, with one resting on the concrete bridge and another on the ground.

In the photo, the wreckage of another derailed carriage lies in a horizontal position on the ground below the bridge, with tens of rescuers working on top of it.

Other photos showed victims being carried away from the scene on stretchers.

China has invested billions of dollars in its high-speed train network, which had become a source of national pride even as questions about safety arose after malfunctions and power outages.