Rescuers on Tuesday pulled three survivors and more bodies from the wreckage of a Japanese train as the death toll rose to 76, with a new derailment raising fresh safety concerns following recent rail privatisation. With hundreds of residents watching, rescuers squeezed into flattened carriages in a last effort to find survivors.
Rescuers were working through the night on Monday in a desperate search for survivors after at least 71 people were killed when a packed morning commuter train smashed into an apartment block in western Japan in the country’s worst rail crash for more than 40 years.
A packed commuter train jumped the tracks in western Japan on Monday and hurtled into an apartment complex, killing 54 people and injuring more than 417 others. Investigators are focusing on whether excessive speed or the actions of the inexperienced driver caused the crash.
The blue-striped carriage lay wrapped around the edge of a nine-floor apartment building like a discarded sheet of plastic. Two other railway carriages were lodged underneath and against it as rescuers scurried around trying frantically to respond to cries for help.
At least 53 people were killed and more than 400 people injured on Monday when a commuter train derailed and smashed into an apartment building in western Japan, firefighters said. ”We have confirmed the deaths of 28 males and 25 women,” said a spokesperson for the fire department in Amagasaki.