Rescue workers rummage through the wreck of the train to find survivors.
Image: Reuters
Five people were killed instantly while more than fifty others were injured when a train carrying more than two hundred people derailed in Philadelphia in the United States of America. According to local news sources, the train was traveling from Washington DC to New York when it left the train rails in a case that has left local railway authorities baffled.
According to Philadelphia Mayor, Mr. Michael Nutter, in addition to the five people that had died, more than fifty others had been taken to hospitals in the area which is around Port Richmond neighbourhood along the Delaware River. He added that six of those that were injured were in a very critical condition. “It’s an absolute disastrous mess,” Nutter said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
The company, Amtrak released a statement in which it said that there were 238 passengers and five crew members aboard the derailed No 188 train, which was enroute from Washington DC to New York. The company did not shed further light on the circumstances surrounding the accident but could only say that service in the area along the whole Northeast train corridor between New York and Philadelphia had been suspended.
According to the notorious Federal Bureau of Investigations, as quoted by the Cable News Network, CNN, no terrorist action was suspected in this accident as there was no indication to support this notion. The report added that the weather was fair during the time of the accident. “We do not know what happened here. We do not know why this happened,” Nutter told reporters. Another television network, the MSNBC, quoted a former congressman of Pennsylvania, Patrick Murphy who was on the train at the time of the crash as saying that his rail car flipped over, even though he escaped with minor cuts and bruises.
