Taipei, April 2, (dpa/GNA) – At least 48 people have been killed in a deadly train derailment in eastern Taiwan, officials said on Friday.
An eight-carriage train with more than 350 passengers onboard appeared to have been hit by an engineering vehicle falling from a slope as it passed a tunnel in Hualien county in eastern Taiwan, according to Hualien County Fire Department.
Several carriages were severely damaged in the crash, according to footage aired on local TV.
Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang on Friday expressed his apologies to the passengers and sent his condolences to the victims’ families.
“I want to express my deep sympathies to the victims’ families and to the passengers who were injured,” Su told a news conference in Taipei, adding that he regretted the incident. He said he would immediately leave Taipei for Hualien.
According to the National Fire Agency, 48 people were killed and at least 66 were injured and are being treated in hospital.
The derailment occurred on the first day of a four-day break for Taiwan’s annual tomb-sweeping tradition.
The passengers said the accident was terrifying. “I didn’t dare look at the scene, there were many people were lying there,” one passenger called Wu who had escaped told state-run Central News Agency. “It was totally dark.
People had no idea what to do.”
Another passenger called Hsueh told Eastern Broadcasting Company that he and others had had to work together to break a window in order to escape.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has instructed the authorities to continue the rescue activities and to fully investigate what caused the accident.
The last major train crash in Taiwan was in October 2018, when 18 people died.
GNA