Society

Passengers of derailed train arrive at destination

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-25 09:53

Rescuers work at the site where a passenger train bound for South China's Guilin city derailed in Dongxiang county of Fuzhou city, East China's Jiangxi province, May 23, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

NANNING - Passengers from a train that derailed Sunday on a mud-covered track in east China's Jiangxi province arrived at their destination in the southern Guangxi Monday morning.

More than 400 passengers arrived at Guilin, a tourist attraction in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, aboard a temporary train at 6 am Monday, said sources with the railway bureau in the regional capital Nanning.

Passenger train K859, carrying 568 passengers and 44 crew members from Shanghai to Guilin, hit a landslide and derailed at around 2 am Sunday. Nineteen people were killed and 71 others were injured in the accident.

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"The locomotive and the first eight carriages derailed," said Wu Zhiqiong, conductor of the derailed train.

Wu said she was in the dining car when the train shook and everyone fell. "I realized it was a derailment, and called the railway bureau in Nanning."

In the fourth carriage alone, about 80 people were injured, but there was no medical worker in the crew, said Wu.

She said most of the passengers were from Guangxi. About 121 were traveling with tour groups.

Tour guide Wei Zhipeng said he was sitting next to the window in the 9th carriage when the accident happened. "I suddenly felt the train was veering off the tracks, so I held onto the railing of the sleeper beds. Then there was a blackout."

He saw the derailed carriages in the moonlight, and called police and ambulances. "I was probably the first to do so."

Wei, who was uninjured, ran around helping evacuate the passengers and covering them with sheets.

"A 70-something man in my tour group was injured on the elbow, but it was not serious," he said.

Eight tourists from Shanghai were also injured in the accident, said Cheng Li, manager of Shanghai Yuping Travel Service. "I called each tourist by phone after the accident. Nearly everyone told me they just woke up to find themselves in hospital."

As of Monday, the injured passengers were still being treated at hospitals in Jiangxi province.

The accident has suspended train services between Kunming in Yunnan province and Shanghai, the Kunming railway bureau said Monday.

Railway authorities across China have warned against floods and geological disasters in the summer. Ministry of Railways held a national tele-conference at midnight to stress safety.

In April 2008, a high-speed passenger train jumped the track in Shandong province and was hit by another train. The accident caused 70 deaths and 416 injuries.