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Deanna Paul
Reporter covering national and last-minute news
At least 18 people have died and 168 others injured after the derailment of an express train to Taiwan on Sunday, reversing and overturning carrier cars, the Associated Press reported. The train wreck has been the worst of the island for decades.
The Puyuma Express train, commonly used by tourists, was en route from Shulin to Taitung with 366 passengers on board. The derailment occurred around 5 pm local time in Lian County in northern Taiwan, along a curve.
Jason Lu, head of the Taiwan Railway Administration, said the eight cars had derailed and five overturned, and that there were "four cars overturned at 90 degrees and the worst victims in those cars. ", according to Agence France-Presse.
The cause is unknown, although survivors described extreme tremors and power cuts throughout the last trip.
"Suddenly, I found myself thrown out of my seat and some passengers were knocked over the windows," said a former soldier at the SET cable television network, according to the South China Morning Post.
A train car is sitting in Yilan, Taiwan, on Sunday. (Lee Kun Han / Reuters) (Stringer / Reuters)
The AP reported that the Taiwanese government had already killed 22 people, but that "the National Fire Agency, quoting the office of the spokesman for the Cabinet, then reduced this figure and blamed a miscalculation."
The six-year-old train was in "pretty good condition," according to deputy head of the Taiwan Railways Administration, Lu Chieh-shen, the BBC reported. The agency also promised to compensate 81,000 dollars to the families of the deceased.
President Tsai Ing-wen called the train crash a "major tragedy".
The Ministry of Defense deployed 120 soldiers for rescue operations and an AFP reporter said the bodies continue to be removed from the debris.
According to the South China Morning Post, an American was injured. The Hong Kong Immigration Department said that he did not know any injured Hong Kong resident.
Sunday's derailment is the deadliest in the country since the 1981 collision with 30 deaths and the third fatal accident since 2003. A train heading for a mountain tourist destination crashed that year, killing 17 people and killing 15 people. wounded. In 2011, a spilled tree caused a train accident that killed six people and injured at least 50 others.
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