Death toll rises to 66 in east China train collision

17:44' 28/04/2008 (GMT+7)
The death toll has climbed to 66 and 247 were hospitalized after an early Monday train collision in east China's Shandong Province, railway authorities confirmed.
Ministry of Railways said 51 of the injured passengers were in critical condition.
Photo taken on April 28, 2008, shows the site of the trains colliding accident, in east China's Shandong Province. Passenger train T195 en route from Beijing to Qingdao city in eastern China derailed and hit train 5034 early on Monday, causing "heavy casualties", witnesses and a government spokesman confirmed.(Xinhua Photo)
Among the injured passengers were four French nationals, all of whom have been hospitalized with bone fractures, a spokesman with the provincial foreign affairs ffice said.
Their identities were not known.
The casualties 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 around 4:40 a.m. About 10 carriages toppled into a ditch.
The derailed train hit train 5034 and caused the latter to veer off its tracks, too.
PRE-DAWN CHAOS
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.
"Most passengers were still asleep, but some were standing in the aisle waiting to get off at the Zibo Railway Station," said one passenger surnamed Zhang aboard the train from Beijing.
"I suddenly felt the train, like a roller coaster, toppled 90 degrees to one side and all the way to the other side. When it finally went off the tracks, many people fell on me and hot water poured out of the thermos flasks."
Zhang was wounded in the head. When she climbed out of the train window, she saw the train had toppled into the farmland beside the railway.
Many villagers voluntarily joined the rescue work, some smashing train windows with their farm tools to pull out the stranded passengers, while others brought food and water from home.
"I saw a girl who was trying to help her boyfriend out of the train, but he was dead," Zhang said.
Xu, a Beijing college student who was traveling to Qingdao, escaped from the wrecked train safe and sound. "I got a hard seat. No one was seriously injured in our carriage."
Many survivors also joined the rescue operation, using blankets and bed sheets from the sleeper cars as stretchers to carry out the seriously wounded.
"For a time, so many people were trying to make phone calls that the mobile communications network was congested and no one could get through," said Xu.
The city government of Zibo has sent a 1,500-member strong team to help and console the victims' families. Nine hotels and 34 rescue centers have been reserved for the victims' families.
Many passengers climbed out of the wrecked train cars shortly after the accident. Some wrapped themselves in bed sheets from the sleeper cars in the early morning chill.
Xinhua reporters at the site saw blood-tainted sheets and broken thermos flasks on the ground, and some of the derailed train cars were seriously damaged.
A 38-year-old woman from the provincial capital Jinan escaped from the wrecked train through a huge crack in its floor with her 13-year-old daughter.
"We were still sleeping when the accident occurred," she said. "I suddenly woke up when I felt the train stopped with a jolt. In a minute or two it started again, but soon toppled."
The woman, who gave only her family name of Yu, said she was traveling with her daughter from Yantai to Jinan on board train 5034. After the accident they were given bread and water and were waiting for treatment.
The mother said she suffered pains on her legs, but the child seemed largely unscathed.
Rescue teams, consisting of medical workers and policemen, have been sent from the neighboring cities of Jinan and Weifang, said a spokesman with the Shandong provincial government.
MINISTRY VOICES CONDOLENCE
A spokesman with the Ministry of Railways has voiced condolences to the victims.
"We grieve over the losses of lives, and sincerely hope those who were injured in the accident will recover soon," said Wang Yongping.
The accident has caught the attention of top Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang, Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun and head of the State Administration of Work Safety Wang Jun have arrived at the site to oversee the rescue work.
TRAFFIC DISRUPTION
The accident has disrupted two-way traffic on the Jinan-Qingdao Railway, a 384-km pivotal rail link between the two big cities in Shandong.
This is the second major railway accident taking place in Shandong this year.
In January, a high-speed train from Beijing to Qingdao ran down a group of railway workers, leaving 18 dead and nine others injured.
The workers were relocating the tracks when the train ran into the work site in Anqiu City.
China had raised train speeds six times as of April 2007, with railways allowing a speed of more than 200 km per hour totaling 6,227 km in length. By 2020, the total length of such high-speed railways will reach 18,000 km and high-speed train services will cover 50,000 km, benefiting 90 percent of China's population.
The nation has started building several new high-speed rail projects, including the new Beijing-Tianjin railway and the Beijing-Shanghai railway. The latter, with a designed speed of 350kilometers per hour, started construction in mid April.