In A Train Accident In A Tunnel In Taiwan, Four People Are Presumed Dead

Car accident in Taiwan in 2018. (Wikimedia Commons/總統府)

JAKARTA - A train accident occurred in Taiwan at the start of a long holiday weekend, when a train skidded inside a tunnel in eastern Taiwan on Friday April 2.

Four people are thought to have died, while more than 20 are thought to have been injured as rescuers struggled to reach the wrecked carriage, the Fire Department said.

The train bound for Taitung ran off the tracks in a tunnel north of Hualien, causing several carriages to crash into the tunnel wall, the Taiwan Fire Department said in a statement.

At least four people are believed to have died, three people with serious injuries have been sent to hospital and about 20 people with minor injuries are waiting to be taken to hospital as a result of this train accident.

It is known that the train carried about 350 passengers. The evacuation process of passengers is still being carried out.

"Between 80 and 100 people have been evacuated from the first four carriages of the train, while cars five to eight have been 'deformed' and difficult to access," the Fire Department added.

In 2018, 18 people were killed and 175 injured in a train accident as it slipped off the tracks in northeastern Taiwan, in the island's worst rail disaster in more than three decades.