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At least 8 injured as MTR train derails near Kowloon
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A TRAIN carrying hundreds of passengers derailed in Hong Kong’s Kowloon during the rush hour yesterday morning, injuring at least eight people onboard.
Of those injured, five passengers, including one male and four females, needed to be taken to the hospital for treatment and were “in conscious condition,” said Cheung Kwong-yuen, a senior officer of the Fire Service Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.
Their injuries were mostly on the necks and shoulders, according to local firefighters.
The accident occurred at around 8:30am local time when the train of the Mass Transit Railway’s East Rail Link pulled in the Hung Hom MTR station.
A passenger who gave his surname as Kwok remembered hearing noises shortly before the accident, while the train was swaying before ultimately derailing. He was sitting in the train when the accident happened, and had his head bumped on the handle in the front. Another man who identified himself as Chung said he felt a strong force of braking. “We (passengers) looked at each other, with no idea as what happened,” he said.
Images from the scene showed three carriages were off the tracks and zigzagged across the rails near Hung Hom station in Kowloon — a busy interchange that provides services to China’s mainland.
Passengers had to leave the train through a broken door and cross tracks on the East Rail Line to make their way to safety.
Five hundred passengers had been evacuated from the train.
“This is a very grave train accident in Hong Kong,” Alfred Sit Wing Hang, Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services, told a press conference after arriving from the scene of investigation.
The area was cordoned off for a thorough investigation. The cause of the accident is still unknown.
When asked whether it’s a deliberate sabotage or mechanical problem after previous attacks by radical protesters on the city’s mass transit system, Sit said the authorities aren’t ruling out any possibility.
“We would not rule out any possibility but at this stage we won’t speculate on any particular suggestions,” the city’s transport chief Frank Chan also said as he talked to reporters.
“We will carry out an independent, thorough and in-depth investigation,” he said, adding it will take about three to six months for the department to complete the investigation and submit a report.
Lau Tin-shing, operations director of the city’s only rail company, the MTR Corporation, told media that short section of the track nearby had been replaced on Monday and the condition of the replacement is “not unusual,” according to his visual assessment.
Subway services between two stations on the line were suspended and intercity services to mainland cities including Guangzhou, Dongguan and Beijing were canceled for the day, according to MTR.
A passenger surnamed Yeung said that the train ran into “something solid,” and he saw smokes from the train.
Preliminary investigation showed a crack on the track, according to the fire service department.
The MTR Corporation, which operates Hong Kong’s rail networks, apologized for the accident, saying its staff were helping the passengers leave the scene, and the reason for the accident is being investigated.
Hong Kong is in its fourth month of unrest, which has seen radical protesters turning increasingly violent with clashes between police and hardcore protesters becoming frequent.
MTR has been targeted by protesters, who were vandalizing entrance barriers and ticketing machines and smashing windows in several stations.
MTR chief executive Jacob Kam told the Financial Times in an interview published before the derailment that the protests were an “unprecedented” challenge and that the firm has been struggling to cope.
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