A train that was fully packed with people who were on their way home to see their families for the Easter weekend crashed in a tunnel, killing dozens and injuring several. According to survivors’ accounts, it was jolted by a heavy crash, flew off the rails and slammed into the walls of a tunnel.
Local news publishers in Taiwan record the crash of the eight-car Taroko Express train to be the worst disaster of the country in four decades and said that the train, which was travelling to Taitung, had come off the rails in a tunnel just north of Hualien. The train had allegedly been carrying over 490 people, of which at least 51 people, including two train drivers, have been reported dead.
According to the BBC, some people at the back of the train were able to walk away unscathed, while 100 were rescued from the first four carriages. Many of the dead, injured and trapped were in four crumpled carriages inside the tunnel.
It is to be noted that the island’s worst crash in recent history was in 1991, when 30 passengers were killed and 112 injured after two trains collided.
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