35 dead, 210 hurt as bullet trains collide in China

At least 35 people were killed and 210 others injured following a collision between two bullet trains in southern China on Saturday evening, in the biggest accident to strike the country’s fast-expanding high-speed rail network.

Chinese officials said on Sunday morning the death toll from the collision had risen to 35, leaving unclear whether further casualties were expected from Saturday’s derailment in southern China.

The accident occurred after one bullet train lost power after being struck by lightning, and was subsequently rear-ended by another train, the official Xinhua agency reported. The trains were running on a 20 metre-high bridge between Hangzhou, the prosperous capital city of Zhejiang province, and Fuzhou.

Xinhua quoted a witness as saying one coach of the train that lost power “plunged onto the ground vertically while another coach was hanging on the bridge with one side seriously deformed.” Four cars on the second train also derailed off the viaduct, Xinhua said. Each coach was carrying around 100 passengers.

Following the accident near the city of Wenzhou, authorities said 23 trains running from Hangzhou were suspended. Thirty trains run to Wenzhou from Hangzhou every day, according to Xinhua.

The trains were “D trains” – the first generation of China’s express trains, which run at around 150 km/h. China is now expanding its railway network of faster high-speed “G trains”, which travel at more than 250 km/h.

The Chinese government has recently invested billions in rapidly expanding its high-speed rail network, which now stretches across more than 8,000 km, and will double by 2020.

The speed at which the railway network has grown has raised concerns among some safety experts in China.

Earlier this year, the former Railway Minister Liu Zhijun, who spear-headed the expansion, was sacked amid allegations of corruption.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday “called for all-out efforts to rescue passengers”, Xinhua reported, while Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu, who recently took over from Mr. Liu, was on his way to the scene of the accident.