Passenger train derails in east China, at least 10 dead, 55 injured

Rescuers work at the site where a passenger train derailed in Dongxiang County, east China's Jiangxi Province, May 23, 2010. (Xinhua/Chen Chunyuan)

DONGXIANG, Jiangxi, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Death toll from a passenger train derail in east China's Jiangxi Province on Sunday has risen to 10, rescue headquarters said.

At least 55 people were injured, two severely, the rescue headquarters said in a statement.

The train, bound for the tourist city of Guilin in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from Shanghai, derailed at around 2:10 a.m. in Dongxiang county, Fuzhou city in Jiangxi, after being hit by landslides, the Ministry of Railways said in a press release early Sunday. At least ten passengers were injured, it said.

Xinhua reporters who rushed to the scene saw the locomotive, plus eight of the 17 carriages of the train -- coded K859 -- derailed and some even overturned in the mountainous area of Jiangxi. One carriage was twisted and crushed on the other.

"Each of the train carriages has 118 seats. It is not yet immediately known how many passengers were on board," said a police officer surnamed Luo, who was from the Railway Bureau in Nanchang, Jiangxi provincial capital.

He said the bureau has called for all of its four legal medical experts to the accident site to help identify the dead.

"We are afraid the casualty may soon rise, as four of the derailed train cars were severely deformed in the accident," he said.

Xinhua reporters saw rescuers using cutting equipment to open an entrance in order to get into one of the derailed carriage. A locomotive has arrived to help pull up the carriages.

A rescue official surnamed Yu said hundreds of armed police, firemen and soldiers are trying to rescue those who remained trapped inside the train.

By a carriage, a man in his 20s, with blood stains on his shirt and a bleeding arm, is trying to help the rescuers.

The man said he was playing cards with his wife when the lights suddenly went out and the train started to roll.

"I climbed out of the window, but my wife is trapped."

His wife's arm streched out from a crack of the deformed carriage, showing little sign of life.

More than a dozen ambulances were parked along the tracks.

Rescuers told Xinhua at least 20 injured passengers were saved. Four in serious conditions were rushed to hospital.

Trains on the Shanghai-Kunming railway were halted after the accident.

Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has ordered all-out efforts to save lives, to restore the railway transport and to launch a thorough investigation of the cause of the accident. [ Governor of Jiangxi Wu Xinxiong arrived at Dongxiang early Sunday morning to direct the rescue operations.

Most parts of Jiangxi, along with neighboring provinces, were drenched by heavy rains in the past few days. Farms were destroyed, low-lying villages and towns flooded, and at least four reservoirs were forced to release fast-rising water.

Local authorities said around 1.46 million residents were affected, with 44,600 being evacuated out of dangerous zones.

In parts of south China, rainstorms since early May have triggered floods and mud-rock flows, swollen rivers, burst dikes, threatened reservoirs and damaged highways, bridges and power facilities.






Rescuers work at the site where a passenger train derailed in Dongxiang County, east China's Jiangxi Province, May 23, 2010

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