AFP :
Dozens of people were killed on Friday when a packed train derailed inside a tunnel in eastern Taiwan, the island’s worst railway accident in decades.
Taiwan’s National Fire Agency said at least 51 people were confirmed dead with 146 sent to hospital.
Two people were still trapped in the twisted carriages inside the tunnel on Friday afternoon, the agency added.
Officials said the accident could have been caused by a maintenance
vehicle sliding down an embankment and striking the train before it entered the tunnel near the coastal city of Hualien.
“There was a construction vehicle that didn’t park properly and slid onto the rail track,” Hualien county police chief Tsai Ding-hsien told reporters.
“This is our initial understanding and we are clarifying the cause of the incident,” he added.
Local media pictures from the scene showed the back of a yellow flatbed truck on its side next to the train.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s office said she had ordered hospitals to prepare for a mass casualty event.
“The top priority now is to rescue the stranded people,” it said in a statement.
The accident occurred on Taiwan’s eastern railway line around 0130 GMT.
Pictures published by local newspaper UDN showed the front of the train inside the tunnel had been pulverized into a twisted mesh of metal.
Footage released by the Taiwan Red Cross showed rescuers with helmets and headlights walking on the roof of the stricken train inside the tunnel to reach survivors.
People further back in the train were able to walk away from the crash comparatively unscathed.
A live Facebook broadcast by UDN outside the tunnel showed a row of undamaged train carriages with rescuers helping passengers escape.
“It felt like there was a sudden violent jolt and I found myself falling to the floor,” an unidentified female survivor told the network, saying she suffered a cut to her head.
“We broke the window to climb to the roof of the train to get out,” she added.
The eight-car train was travelling from Taipei to the southeastern city of Taitung and was carrying about 350 passengers.
