66 Dead, 400 Injured in Train Collision

The early Monday train collision in east China's Shandong Province has caused 66 deaths, railway authorities confirmed.

The early Monday train collision in east China's Shandong Province has caused 66 deaths, railway authorities confirmed.

The early Monday train collision in east China's Shandong Province has caused 66 deaths, railway authorities confirmed.

Some 60 people were killed and 400 were taken to hospital, with 70 in a critical condition, Xinhua news agency said earlier, quoting the Jinan Railway Bureau based in Shandong.

The victims were from two passengers 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 4:43 am About 10 carriages toppled into a ditch.

The derailed train hit train 5034 and caused the latter to veer off its tracks, too.

Witnesses said many passengers had climbed out the wrecked train cars shortly after the accident. Some had wrapped up themselves in bed sheets from the sleeper cars in the early morning chill.

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.

Dozens of injured passengers were being treated at the Zhoucun People's Hospital. "Most are slight cases and more people are being sent in every hour," a hospital worker said. "Some of our medical workers have gone out for rescue work, too."

The hospital, about 30 minutes' drive from the site of the accident, is one of several hospitals involved in the rescue work.

Rescue teams, consisting medical workers and policemen, have been sent in from the neighboring cities of Jinan and Weifang, said a spokesman with the Shandong provincial government.

The accident has disrupted two-way traffic on the Jinan-Qingdao Railway, a pivotal provincial rail link.

This is the second major railway accidents taking place in Shandong this year.

In January, a high-speed train from Beijing to Qingdao ran down a group of railway workers in Shandong Province, leaving 18 dead and nine others injured.

The workers were relocating the tracks when the train ran into the work site in Anqiu City of Shandong.