At least 10 people killed and 73 injured as Turkish train derails
AT LEAST 10 people were killed and more than 70 injured yesterday when multiple cars of a train derailed in western Turkey.
Junior health minister Eyup Gumus put the number of fatalities at 10 and the people injured at 73 based on initial reports from the scene.
Turkish media reported that the train left Edirne, on the border with Greece, bound for Istanbul with 360 passengers. The train derailed in a village in Tekirdag province.
An unnamed survivor said she was riding in one of the cars when it went off the tracks.
“There were deaths immediately, people whose legs were crushed. It was a horrible accident,” she said.
Photographs of the site showed collapsed ground under the rails.
Video footage captured overturned cars and several people being carried away on stretchers.
Other footage showed several wagons laying on their side and emergency personnel forced to walk to reach the crash site.
Tekirdag governor Mehmet Ceyhan said the area where the derailment happened was muddy from heavy rain and difficult to get to.
CNN Turk has claimed that a collapsed bridge was the cause of the accident.
Emergency services and military helicopters arrived quickly at the scene.
Mr Ceyhan said: “Our helicopter ambulances have reached the site. Many of those injured have been taken off the site.”
The local Corlu municipality tweeted that hospitals were in need of blood donations for the injured.
Several news sources said that Russian tourists were among those injured in the derailment.
President Tayyip Erdogan’s office said he had received information from the ministers of transport and interior about the incident, and sent his condolences.