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JINAN: 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
passenger 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.
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.”
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.
Xu, a Beijing college student who
was traveling to Qingdao, escaped from the wrecked train safe and
sound. “I got a hard seat and 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.
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.
Many passengers climbed out of
the wrecked train cars shortly after the accident. Some wrapped
themselves in bed sheets from thesleeper cars in the early morning
chill.
--Xinhua
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