A passenger train in northwest Turkey ignored a stop signal and rammed into an oncoming train Wednesday, killing six people and injuring 85 others, officials said, in the nation's third deadly rail accident in as many weeks.
Rescue workers in blue and orange jumpsuits climbed through the wreckage near the village of Tavsancil in Kocaeli province, some 80km east of Istanbul, to recover trapped and smashed bodies. They threw mangled pieces of metal out the shattered windows and used axes and torches to cut through the wreckage.
PHOTO: AP
The prime minister's office announced that six people were killed in the accident and 85 people were injured.
Earlier the semiofficial Anatolia news agency, quoting prosecutor Veysel Eroglu, who is investigating the accident, reported that nine people were killed in the crash. But the agency later reported the death toll at six. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.
A few bodies were still believed to be trapped inside the wreckage.
Armed troops were guarding the site.
By nightfall, rescue operations had largely ended and emergency crews were using flashlights to search inside the wreckage for any bodies.
The accident occurred after a train traveling from Ankara to Istanbul ignored a signal and failed to stop at a junction, Cemal Yaman, an official of a local branch of the train workers' union told the Anatolia news agency. The train was carrying 153 passengers and nine crew members.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said, "One of the trains passed a red light. When the [engineer] noticed he tried to reduce speed but unfortunately the accident occurred."
However, conductor Hasan Yucedag told Anatolia from his hospital bed that "the light was green for us. It suddenly turned red as we were about to cross."
Yucedag suffered a broken arm.
The other train was traveling from Istanbul to Adapazari in northwestern Turkey, officials said.
The Prime Minister's Crisis Center said 85 people were injured. Most of the injured were released from hospital by nightfall.
Mahmut Yanmis, who survived the accident, told CNN-Turk television the collision occurred after his train left Tavsancil station.
"I made my way through a broken window," said Yanmis, who had stitches on his head and scratches on his arms. "When I went out of the car, I saw the decapitated body of a conductor trapped at the gate of the locomotive.
"I saw the passenger sitting next to me dead. Body pieces were scattered everywhere."
At the crash site, a middle-aged man screamed, "My God! My God! Ismail! Ismail!" in apparent reference to a victim.
Several relatives or friends sat on the bumper of an ambulance, waiting for news. One man sat with his head between his hands, crying.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not