At least 32 people in Thailand have been killed and scores injured after a crane collapsed on to a passenger train and derailed it, officials said.
Footage from the scene verified by Agence France-Presse showed the crane’s broken structure resting on giant concrete pillars and smoke rising from the wreckage of the train below.
Rescuers worked to extract passengers from the tilted carriages in Nakhon Ratchasima province, north-east of the capital, Bangkok. Officials said the train had been travelling from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani province.
Mitr Intrpanya, 54, a local resident who was at the scene, said: “At around 9am I heard a loud noise, like something sliding down from above, followed by two explosions. When I went to see what had happened, I found the crane sitting on a passenger train with three carriages.
“The metal from the crane appeared to strike the middle of the second carriage, slicing it in half.”
The health ministry said 32 people were dead and 64 had been hospitalised, seven in a serious condition.
The crash happened at a construction site that is part of a $5.4bn project backed by Beijing to build a high-speed rail network in Thailand. It aims to connect Bangkok to Kunming in China via Laos by 2028 as part of China’s vast belt and road infrastructure initiative.
Live footage aired by local media showed rescue workers at the scene and a brightly coloured train derailed on its side.
The district police chief, Thatchapon Chinnawong, said authorities were pausing the rescue operation because of “chemical leakage” at the scene.
The transport minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, said 195 people had been onboard and authorities were trying to identify the dead.
The prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said authorities must determine the cause of the crane collapse and hold anyone responsible to account.
“These kind of incidents happen very regularly,” he told reporters in Bangkok. “I have heard that it is the same company [involved as in previous accidents]. It is time to change the law to blacklist construction companies that are repeatedly responsible for accidents.”
Thailand has about 3,100 miles (5,000km) of railway but the run-down state of the network has long driven people to favour travel by road.
Upon completion of the 370-mile high-speed railway, Chinese-made trains will run from Bangkok to Nong Khai, on the Mekong River border with Laos, at up to 150mph.
Industrial and construction site accidents are common in Thailand and lax enforcement of safety regulations can lead to deaths.
