Deaths reported in Amtrak crash

Philadelphia mayor says cars were ‘ripped apart.’ Dozens of people are injured.

A New York-bound train derails in Philadelphia.

An Amtrak train derailed Tuesday night in Philadelphia, killing at least five people and injuring dozens, six critically, officials said.

Mayor Michael Nutter said at a late-night news conference that the accident scene was devastating. “It’s an absolute disastrous mess. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

At least five people are dead, Nutter said. Some cars were “ripped apart,” he said, and one car was perpendicular to the others.

Rescuers were still searching the wreckage as midnight approached, but most passengers escaped it on their own, officials said.

Fifty-three people were taken to hospitals, six in critical condition, the Fire Department said.

About 238 passengers and five crew members were aboard, Amtrak said in a statement. Northeast Regional Train 188 was en route from Washington, D.C., to New York City.

The National Transportation Safety Board said its investigative team would arrive Wednesday morning.

Paul Cheung, an Associated Press manager, was aboard. He said the train “started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake.”

“Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake,” he told the AP. “You could see people’s stuff flying over me.”

Cheung said passengers tried to get out the windows of cars tipped on their side.

“The front of the train is really mangled,” he said. “It’s a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal.”

Amtrak has suspended service between New York and Philadelphia.

Patrick J. Murphy, who hosts MSNBC’s “Taking the Hill” and served in Congress from 2007 to 2011, said he was on the train when it derailed. He posted dramatic photos on Twitter showing injured passengers and rescue workers.

Video apparently taken by another passenger shows people attempting to move in one of the damaged cars.

“I got you, OK,” one man says. “Keep crawling.”

“Where am I crawling to?” another man asks.

“Crawl forward, sir,” a third man replies.