TURKEY TRAIN CRASH KILLS 24, INJURES HUNDREDS
ISTANBUL: Twenty-four people were killed and hundreds injured when a train packed with weekend passengers derailed in northwest Turkey due to ground erosion afer heavy rains, officials said yesterday.
The train, with more than 360 people on board, was travelling from the Edirne region on the Greek and Bulgarian borders to Istanbul’s Halkali station on Sunday when six carriages derailed in the Tekirdag region.
Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said 24 people died, in a sharp rise from the previous toll of 10.
The state-run Anadolu news agency quoted Akdag as saying search operations through the derailed train carriages had been completed yesterday morning.
Turkish media quoted Health Minister Ahmet Demircan as saying 338 people required hospital treatment after the accident, with 124 still hospitalised.
The Transport Ministry said the train, carrying 362 passengers, had derailed as recent heavy downpours caused the ground beneath the track to erode.
Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said the latest checks on the rails had been made in April, Anadolu reported.
Turkish media published pictures showing the erosion had been so bad that part of the track had been in the air with no ground left to support it.
Television pictures showed several train carriages sprawled on their sides, and injured passengers being taken away on stretchers as rescue workers picked through the wreckage.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his condolences over those who lost their lives in the accident that he said had “deeply upset the nation”.