Beijing: At least 68 people were killed
and over 100 injured today in a train accident, two major road
mishaps and a forest fire in China.
Nineteen passengers were killed and 71 others were
injured when a passenger train from Shanghai to the scenic
city of Guilin in south China`s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region derailed after ramming into landslides in Jiangxi
Province.
The condition of the 11 injured passengers was stated
to be serious, Xinhua newsagency reported.
A spokesman of the Railway headquarters said 8,000
cubic meters of mud and rocks from the landslide were removed
from the tracks, after 2,000 rescuers using heavy machinery
completed the rescue operation. Several compartments of the
train became a twisted mettle crushing many passengers.
The engine along with eight of the 17 carriages of the
train derailed and some even overturned in the mountainous
area. One carriage was twisted and crushed on the other.
"Each of the train carriages has 118 seats. It is not
yet immediately known how many passengers were on board," said
a police officer surnamed Luo.
Meanwhile, 32 people were killed after a bus and truck
collided on an expressway in Fuxin City, northeast China`s
Liaoning Province. Three people on the truck and 28 passengers
on the bus were killed on the spot. One of the 22 injured died
in hospital.
A spokesman with the Liaoning Public Security Bureau
said the accident happened in the early hours when the truck
turned the wrong way coming out of a service area. The two
vehicles collided head on and caught fire.
The coach, with 53 people on board was en route from
Tianjin to Harbin, capital of the northeastern Heilongjiang
Province.
Meanwhile, another 12 people were killed in forest
fire in in south western China after they volunteered to douse
it. The victims were the villagers from Yunnan province who
joined to help the authorities to fight a fire that broke out
last afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported.
In yet another road accident, five people were killed
after a bus rammed into the road side barrier and veered off
an expressway in southwest China`s Chongqing Municipality.
The bus was carrying 47 people and heading to
Chongqing rom Kaixian County, when the accident happened in
the early hours, said Chongqing police.
Six injured people have been rushed to Dianjiang
County People`s Hospital. None of them was in critical
condition, said the police.
PTI
