Beijing, Dec. 15, (dpa/GNA) – More than 100 people suffered bone fractures in a train accident in the Chinese capital Beijing, local authorities said.
More than 500 people in total were taken to hospital after the accident on Thursday evening but there were no fatalities, the city’s transport authority said.
Two carriages of an above-ground underground line were torn apart on the open track.
It is not completely clear how the accident unfolded. According to state media, the authorities are working on the assumption that the slippery, snow-covered track led to an unsuccessful braking manoeuvre and subsequently to the collision and decoupling of the carriages.
People fell from their seats and windows shattered when the two carriages collided, eyewitnesses reported.
People were reportedly trapped in the carriages for up to an hour until rescue workers freed them.
Photos online showed the two damaged train sections standing apart from each other.
According to official figures, 423 people left the hospital on Friday morning and 67 were kept in hospital after the accident at around 7 pm (1100 GMT) on Thursday evening.
It has snowed a lot in Beijing and northern China in recent days. Long-distance trains have been running with significant delays or have been cancelled in some cases.
Kindergartens remained closed. Primary and secondary schools switched to online teaching.
Beijing, with a population of around 21.8 million, has one of the largest underground railway networks in the world with 27 lines.
The train on the Changping line was travelling out of the city on the outskirts of Beijing at the time of the accident.
The line transports around 400,000 people on weekdays, the China Daily newspaper reported.