Related News
Argentina declares national mourning over train crash
Source: Xinhua |
February 23, 2012, Thursday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
The Argentine government has declared a two-day national mourning for the deadly train crash that killed 49 people and injured over 600 yesterday morning.
A packed commuter train crashed into station buffers at around 8:30 am local time (1130 GMT). Powerful collision force thrust the train's second carriage into the first one, trapping dozens of people inside the wreck.
Injured passengers, many of them trapped for hours in the train, were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. The train's conductor was seriously wounded and put in the intensive care unit.
"We didn't see anything. There was just a huge sound, like an explosion. Everyone was running. I have a broken bone in my hand. My neck and feet were also injured," a victim at Durand Hospital told Xinhua.
The police has confirmed that at least 49 people, including a child, were killed and more than 600 people injured.
President Cristina Fernandez has declared a two-day national mourning, starting today, for victims of the nation's worst railway accident in three decades.
The tragedy occurred during morning rush hour at a rail line linking the capital city and its western suburbs, as the train failed to make a stop at Once Station.
Argentina's Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi rushed to the scene and described the accident as "terrible."
Schiavi said the train entered the station at a speed of 20 kph and slammed into a retaining wall at the end of the tracks.
Rescue work ended at noontime as relatives and friends continued to wait anxiously to find their loved ones. The injured were sent to 12 hospitals across the city for treatment.
While investigations continued, many have pointed to dysfunctional brakes as the cause of the crash, with some accusing the company running the Sarmiento rail line of lax oversight of trains' maintenance.
The railway line connects the city center of Buenoes Aires to a densely populated western suburb some 70 km away.
The Chinese Embassy in Buenos Aires has said one Chinese national and two others, who were either Chinese nationals or ethnic Chinese, sustained non life-threatening injuries from the crash.
Wednesday's crash was one of the worst railway tragedies in the country since February 1970, when 236 people were killed as a train from Tucuman in northern Argentina crashed into another which had stopped due to mechanical failure. In 1978, another train accident left 55 people dead in the country.
Last September, another tragedy took place on the Sarmiento line as 11 people were killed and 200 more injured when two trains crashed into a public bus.
A packed commuter train crashed into station buffers at around 8:30 am local time (1130 GMT). Powerful collision force thrust the train's second carriage into the first one, trapping dozens of people inside the wreck.
Injured passengers, many of them trapped for hours in the train, were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. The train's conductor was seriously wounded and put in the intensive care unit.
"We didn't see anything. There was just a huge sound, like an explosion. Everyone was running. I have a broken bone in my hand. My neck and feet were also injured," a victim at Durand Hospital told Xinhua.
The police has confirmed that at least 49 people, including a child, were killed and more than 600 people injured.
President Cristina Fernandez has declared a two-day national mourning, starting today, for victims of the nation's worst railway accident in three decades.
The tragedy occurred during morning rush hour at a rail line linking the capital city and its western suburbs, as the train failed to make a stop at Once Station.
Argentina's Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi rushed to the scene and described the accident as "terrible."
Schiavi said the train entered the station at a speed of 20 kph and slammed into a retaining wall at the end of the tracks.
Rescue work ended at noontime as relatives and friends continued to wait anxiously to find their loved ones. The injured were sent to 12 hospitals across the city for treatment.
While investigations continued, many have pointed to dysfunctional brakes as the cause of the crash, with some accusing the company running the Sarmiento rail line of lax oversight of trains' maintenance.
The railway line connects the city center of Buenoes Aires to a densely populated western suburb some 70 km away.
The Chinese Embassy in Buenos Aires has said one Chinese national and two others, who were either Chinese nationals or ethnic Chinese, sustained non life-threatening injuries from the crash.
Wednesday's crash was one of the worst railway tragedies in the country since February 1970, when 236 people were killed as a train from Tucuman in northern Argentina crashed into another which had stopped due to mechanical failure. In 1978, another train accident left 55 people dead in the country.
Last September, another tragedy took place on the Sarmiento line as 11 people were killed and 200 more injured when two trains crashed into a public bus.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
