In a tragic incident, a passenger train partially derailed along Taiwan’s east coast on Friday, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens. As per the reports, 41 people have been killed and 72 injured in the accident. There were a total of 350 passengers on the train at the time of the accident.
Claimed to be the biggest train accident in three decades, around 70 people were still believed to be trapped inside carriages.
The train was travelling from Taipei to Taitung when it came off the rails as it went in a tunnel, just north of the city of Hualien.
Upon receiving information about the accident, police and Disaster Management Department personnel rushed to the scene and launched support operations. About 80 to 100 people in the first four bogies of the train were safely evacuated after the derailment.
According to Taiwan’s official media, a truck was parked next to the tracks at the tunnel, causing an accident. A man has revealed that the train derailed after it first collided with a truck. Notably, a train crash in northeastern Taiwan in 2018 killed 18 people and injured 175 others.