Survivors' tales of horror night
By Zha Minjie |
July 25, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BLACK clouds covered the sky over Wenzhou city late yesterday, the second day that the city had experienced an ominous silence before heavy rainfall.
Thunder roared and lightning zigzagged across the sky that the day before had witnessed one of the worst fatal railway accidents in China's history.
"Usually there is not so much lightning at this time of year," said one local resident.
It was lightning on Saturday evening that led to the two-train collision and derailment that killed 35 people and about 200 others injured onboard at Shuangyu Town in Wenzhou, rail authorities said.
An 'earthquake'
Gently touching her cut and bruised right leg in a Wenzhou hospital, Wang Hairu, 25, could not help saying she and her husband "were lucky."
Wang and her husband, Cao Weidong, were in the last carriage of bullet train D3115, which had been brought to a halt on the track after a lightning strike before it was hit by a following train, the D301, at about 8:30pm.
"It was like an earthquake coming," said Wang, from east China's Shandong Province.
Their carriage was crushed in the impact as the D3115 was pushed forward. It was a terrifying 30 seconds before the train stopped again.
The couple found they were among just a few survivors of the original 20 passengers in the carriage.
"My husband kept dragging me as the train slid," said Wang. In their bare feet, their clothes ripped, the couple managed to find a broken train window to climb out.
Desperately crying for help, some passengers began walking along the track in the darkness before they came across some railway workers.
First to leave the train, the couple went back to try to rescue others in their severely damaged carriage.
Cao managed to break two other windows but failed to find any more passengers in the darkness where the only light was from his cell phone.
"One mother was crying really hard outside the coach begging for help as her daughter was still inside," said Wang. The mother was bleeding profusely from a head wound.
Another passenger named Wang Guangyou said he had broken open train doors and helped out a family, including a girl, in one of the damaged coaches.
Zhu Yalan told how he had been saved by a man wearing a black T-shirt. "I was exhausted," the man told Zhu. He said he had already dragged many survivors out before turning back to try to find others.
Lying on a bed on the first floor in Kangning Hospital, Yang Yanxia, eyes red with tears, covered her face with her hands while watching two boys, one 6 and the other 9, lying beside her. The boy's mother, Yang's aunt, died in the accident.
"How shall I tell them in the future?" said Yang, who suffered leg injuries.
Yang's four-year-old daughter survived on the D3115 train after Yang had grabbed all three children together.
About five minutes' drive from the hospital, the debris of the damaged trains was being removed as search and rescue work drew to a close.
Still, there were parents looking for missing sons or daughters, and children left unhugged by moms and dads who had been reported missing.
At Wenzhou railway station and long-distance bus stations, people were holding up boards directing family members who had come to look for their loved ones and people who came to help.
In the hospital, on a list of people who had died in the crash, there were many entries alongside which there was a simple entry: "No name."
Thunder roared and lightning zigzagged across the sky that the day before had witnessed one of the worst fatal railway accidents in China's history.
"Usually there is not so much lightning at this time of year," said one local resident.
It was lightning on Saturday evening that led to the two-train collision and derailment that killed 35 people and about 200 others injured onboard at Shuangyu Town in Wenzhou, rail authorities said.
An 'earthquake'
Gently touching her cut and bruised right leg in a Wenzhou hospital, Wang Hairu, 25, could not help saying she and her husband "were lucky."
Wang and her husband, Cao Weidong, were in the last carriage of bullet train D3115, which had been brought to a halt on the track after a lightning strike before it was hit by a following train, the D301, at about 8:30pm.
"It was like an earthquake coming," said Wang, from east China's Shandong Province.
Their carriage was crushed in the impact as the D3115 was pushed forward. It was a terrifying 30 seconds before the train stopped again.
The couple found they were among just a few survivors of the original 20 passengers in the carriage.
"My husband kept dragging me as the train slid," said Wang. In their bare feet, their clothes ripped, the couple managed to find a broken train window to climb out.
Desperately crying for help, some passengers began walking along the track in the darkness before they came across some railway workers.
First to leave the train, the couple went back to try to rescue others in their severely damaged carriage.
Cao managed to break two other windows but failed to find any more passengers in the darkness where the only light was from his cell phone.
"One mother was crying really hard outside the coach begging for help as her daughter was still inside," said Wang. The mother was bleeding profusely from a head wound.
Another passenger named Wang Guangyou said he had broken open train doors and helped out a family, including a girl, in one of the damaged coaches.
Zhu Yalan told how he had been saved by a man wearing a black T-shirt. "I was exhausted," the man told Zhu. He said he had already dragged many survivors out before turning back to try to find others.
Lying on a bed on the first floor in Kangning Hospital, Yang Yanxia, eyes red with tears, covered her face with her hands while watching two boys, one 6 and the other 9, lying beside her. The boy's mother, Yang's aunt, died in the accident.
"How shall I tell them in the future?" said Yang, who suffered leg injuries.
Yang's four-year-old daughter survived on the D3115 train after Yang had grabbed all three children together.
About five minutes' drive from the hospital, the debris of the damaged trains was being removed as search and rescue work drew to a close.
Still, there were parents looking for missing sons or daughters, and children left unhugged by moms and dads who had been reported missing.
At Wenzhou railway station and long-distance bus stations, people were holding up boards directing family members who had come to look for their loved ones and people who came to help.
In the hospital, on a list of people who had died in the crash, there were many entries alongside which there was a simple entry: "No name."
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