ZIBO, China — Some passengers were sleeping, but others were standing in the aisle waiting to get off when their high-speed train derailed, toppling into a ditch “like a roller coaster” and slamming into another train.
At least 70 people died, and more than 400 were injured.
China reacted swiftly to its worst train accident in a decade. It sent top officials and soldiers to Zibo, the site of the predawn crash Monday in eastern China’s Shandong province. It also sacked two railway officials.
Authorities were quoted as saying that human error was to blame.
The official Xinhua News Agency also said one of the trains was traveling too fast.
The crash occurred when a train headed from Beijing to the coastal city of Qingdao derailed and hit a second passenger train just before dawn. Nine of the first train’s carriages were knocked into a ditch, said Railway Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping in a statement. The second train, which had been headed from Yantai in Shandong to Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, was knocked off its tracks but stayed upright.
News photos showed rescuers pulling passengers from a rail car on its side. Survivors bundled in bed sheets from the sleeper cars stood or sat near the wreckage. The death toll could rise, with 70 people hospitalized in critical condition, according to Xinhua.
A total of 420 people were hurt, Xinhua said. No foreigners were among the dead.
Injured survivors included four French nationals, a coach from China’s national sailing team and a 3-year-old boy, who was thought to be the youngest victim. He was in stable condition after being treated for a broken arm.
