A passenger train traveling from Southwest China’s mountainous Guizhou province to the southern metropolis of Guangzhou derailed on Saturday, leaving one dead and eight injured, according to the train operator.
The accident occurred at around 10:30 a.m. near Rongjiang Railway Station, when train D2809 hit a mudslide, causing the seventh and eighth cars to derail, said state-owned China Railway Chengdu Group Co. Ltd., which operated the train.
The nine injured were taken to a local hospital, but one of them, the driver, was later pronounced dead. The injuries of another crew member and seven passengers were not life-threatening, the company said in a post on social media Weibo. The remaining 136 passengers have been evacuated.
The train departed Guizhou’s capital, Guiyang, at 9:00 a.m., and was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou at 2:34 p.m., according to the official train booking website, 12306.
Rongjiang Railway Station is located in Guizhou’s Guzhou town. A local weather station issued a warning at 7:16 a.m. saying that thunderstorms around Guzhou would continue for the next three hours.
An investigation into the accident is ongoing, the train operator said.
In 2020, three derailments occurred within about three months, involving a train traveling from the eastern city of Jinan to Guangzhou on March 30, one traveling from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Hebei province on April 12, and another traveling from Guangzhou to Chongqing on June 7.
Contact reporter Lin Jinbing (jinbinglin@caixin.com)
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