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After the devastating train accident in Taiwan, emergency services began clean-up work on Saturday. They tried to rescue cars that had crashed into a tunnel and were badly damaged, an AFP reporter reported. According to rescuers, it cannot be ruled out that there are more bodies in the wagons.
The Interior Ministry ordered that all the flags of the island nation be flown at half mast for three days. President Tsai Ing-wen went to visit accident survivors at hospitals in the coastal city of Hualien later on Saturday.
The train derailed in a tunnel on Friday. At least 50 people died and another 175 passengers had to be taken to hospital injured. A Frenchman was also among the fatalities. It was the worst rail accident in Taiwan in decades.
The train was going from the capital Taipei to Taitung when it derailed in the tunnel near Hualien. According to authorities, the cause of the accident was apparently a poorly parked construction vehicle that slid down an embankment and crashed into the tracks as the train was about to enter the tunnel. The train was fully occupied with about 500 people heading to the so-called Grabfegerfest on the east coast.
The last time there was a serious train accident in 2018 with 18 dead and more than 200 injured on the same train route. The train conductor was later charged with negligent manslaughter. In 1991, 30 people were killed in a collision between two trains, and the same number died in 1981 when a train collided with a truck. The worst train accident to date in Taiwan occurred in 1948, according to the Apple Daily; 64 people died at that time.
