Four train cars overturned in the crash, which occurred in Yilan Country near the coast on a line popular among tourists, Reuters reported. All eight cars ran off the tracks on a bend near a station at 4.50pm, according to officials.
A train derailment in northeastern Taiwan on Sunday (October 21), killed 18 people and injured 175, authorities said, in what is the island’s worst rail disaster in more than three decades.
Four train cars overturned in the crash, which occurred in Yilan Country near the coast on a line popular among tourists, Reuters reported. All eight cars ran off the tracks on a bend near a station at 4.50pm, according to officials.
The cause of the crash is still being investigated, but local media quoted several survivors who pointed to the high speed at which the train was travelling, The Straits Times reported.
The train’s 366 passengers onboard, including the dead and injured, have been evacuated or removed from the wreckage, the Taiwan Railways Administration said.
Fifteen of the 18 casualties were in the first three cars, reported local media. Among those who died, the youngest was nine years old.
Hundreds of rescuers and military personnel worked through the wreckage with spotlights on Sunday night in search of survivors, with ambulances stationed nearby.
Rescue workers, some attending to injured people at the scene, used cranes to lift the battered cars, some of which were lined in a zigzag pattern near the tracks.
The official Central News Agency said the incident was the island’s deadliest rail tragedy since 30 were killed in a 1981 collision in northern Taiwan.
“The train was in pretty good condition," Taiwan Railways Administration’s deputy chief Lu Chieh-Shen told a news conference.
An American woman was slightly injured, according to Yilan firefighters. Authorities are checking if more foreigners were on board.