Over 120 Injured After Landslide Derails Train in Hunan

One person has died and four are in critical condition, according to local authorities
A train traveling from the eastern city of Jinan to Guangzhou in the south of China was derailed Monday morning near Chenzhou, in the central Hunan province.

The accident has resulted in one death and over 120 injuries, four of them serious, according to a local fire and rescue department.

On Monday afternoon, Chenzhou authorities said the accident was the result of a landslide after several days of rain in the area. When the train collided with debris covering the tracks, one carriage caught fire and six carriages were derailed.

The blaze was extinguished after some 130 firefighters arrived on the scene. Over 200 of the train’s passengers were diverted to another station, the local authorities said.

“I was sleeping. When I woke up, my son was dragging me to escape through the window,” a male passenger surnamed Jiang told The Paper, Sixth Tone’s sister publication. “Everyone was fleeing.”

Another passenger who was injured and had to be hospitalized told domestic outlet The Beijing News that he “fainted immediately” when the carriage he was in ran off the track.

In 2006, a landslide in the same area resulted in at least 12 trains being delayed, according to The Paper.

This is a developing story; it will be updated as more information becomes available.

Editor: David Paulk.

(Header image: A train traveling from Jinan to Guangzhou was derailed because of a landslide near Chenzhou, Hunan province, March 30, 2020. Zhong Lei/Xinhua)