Off-rails Taiwan wreck kills 18

One of Taiwan’s fastest passenger trains derailed Sunday on a curve along a popular weekend route, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than 170 others, authorities said.

The Puyuma Express was carrying more than 360 passengers from a suburb of Taipei in the north to Taitung, a city on Taiwan’s southeast coast, when it went off the tracks shortly before 5 p.m., government officials said.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the accident.

Most of the deaths were in the first car, and it was unclear whether other people were trapped in the train, according to a government spokesman, who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity.

Some passengers were crushed to death, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said.

“Their train car turned over. They were crushed, so they died right away,” a ministry spokesman said.

Photos from the scene just south of the city of Luodong show the train’s cars in a zigzag formation near the tracks (above). Five cars were turned on their sides.

The Puyuma was launched in 2013 to handle the rugged topography of Taiwan’s east coast. It travels at a top speed of about 95 mph.