In this photo released by Taiwan's fire department, rescue workers are seen near the site of a partial train derailment in Toroko Gorge in Taiwan's eastern Hualien region, April 2, 2021. (PHOTO / AP)

TAIPEI/BEIJING - A Taiwan express train with almost 500 aboard derailed in a tunnel on Friday, killing at least 48 passengers and injuring 66 in the island’s worst rail disaster in almost four decades.

The train, travelling to Taitung, was carrying around 500 people, and rescue efforts are ongoing, authorities said

The train, travelling from Taipei to the southeastern city of Taitung came off the rails after apparently hitting a truck that had slid off a road from a nearby construction site. The crash, north of the eastern city of Hualien, killed the driver of the train carrying many tourists and people heading home at the start of a long weekend traditional holiday to tend to family graves.

Images from the scene showed carriages in the tunnel ripped apart by the impact, with others crumpled, hindering rescuers in their efforts to reach passengers, although by mid-afternoon no one was still trapped.

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Transport "minister" Lin Chia-lung told reporters on the scene that the train was carrying about 490 people - higher than an earlier fire department figure of 350.

A Chinese mainland spokesperson conveyed condolences and sorrow for the casualties. "The mainland is highly concerned about the rescue progress," said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Taiwan media said many people were standing as the train was so full, and were thrown about when it crashed, and showed pictures of survivors being led out the tunnel.

“People just fell all over each other, on top of one another,” one female survivor told local television. “It was terrifying. There were whole families there.”

Tourist destination

“Our train crashed into a truck,” one man said in a video aired on Taiwan television, showing pictures of the wreckage. “The truck came falling down.”

Part of the train was situated outside the tunnel, and those passengers in carriages still in the tunnel had to be led to safety, Taiwan’s railway administration said.

Images showed an injured passenger being stretchered out of the crash scene, her head and neck in a brace, passengers gathering suitcases and bags in a tilted, derailed carriage and others walking out of the tunnel on the roof of the train.
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The accident occurred at the start of a long weekend for the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day, when people return home to look after family grave sites.

Taiwan’s mountainous east coast is a popular tourist destination, and the railway line from Taipei down the east coast is renowned for its tunnels and route that hugs the coast just north of Hualien where the crash occurred. The line connecting Taipei with Hualien was opened only in 1979.

Taiwan’s railways are generally reliable and efficient, but have had a patchy safety record over the years.

In 2018, 18 people died and 175 were injured when a train derailed in northeastern Taiwan. In 1981, 30 were killed in a collision in northern Taiwan, and in 1991 another 30 died in a train crash.