Desperate families were searching for loved ones yesterday after a massive train crash in Buenos Aires killed 50 people, injured nearly 700 and left dozens trapped for hours in the wreckage.
Rescuers spent much of the day prying people from the wreckage after the packed train slammed into a wall at a major railway terminus on Wednesday morning, sending cars crashing into each other and crushing the passengers inside.
“The train was full and the impact was tremendous,” a passenger identified only as Ezequiel told local television, adding that medics at the scene appeared overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.
Photo: AFP
Officials late on Wednesday raised the death toll to 50, including one child. Civil defense officials earlier said that at least 675 people had been hurt in the crash, 200 of them seriously.
Families of missing passengers desperately searched hospitals, the morgue and a public cemetery where dozens of bodies were taken.
Authorities handed out lists of hundreds of the injured, but the identities of many of the deceased and wounded remained unknown.
“I was in five hospitals and I couldn’t find my wife,” said a man who gave his name as Jose and said his pregnant wife had been in one of the first cars.
“They told us there are people being operated on and they don’t know who they are. There’s no way to know until they come out of surgery,” said Luisa, looking for her 24-year-old son.
TV channels broadcast photographs of missing people as social networks filled with messages from people searching for information.
Witnesses said the train’s brakes failed as it was arriving at the Once station on the western outskirts of Argentina’s capital.
Survivors described a scene of panic, with Medevac helicopters and ambulances racing in and out of the station to ferry the wounded to hospitals.
“There were people who were crushed and shouting desperately. I saw bodies and blood all over the place,” passenger Alejandro Velazquez said.
Firefighters and rescue workers had to break through skylights in the train’s roofs to reach dozens of people who were trapped in the twisted wreckage of the first and second carriages.
The government called for two days of mourning and suspended Carnival celebrations, including a massive parade planned in Buenos Aires today.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez suspended a news conference on the dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands following news of the crash.
Condolences from British Minister of State for Latin America Jeremy Browne were among numerous foreign sympathy messages sent to Argentina.
Argentine Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said the train entered the station at a speed of 20kph and failed to stop, crashing into a retaining wall in what he called “a very serious accident.”
The train’s driver was injured, but rescue workers had to pry him loose from the wreckage of his cabin. He was 28 years old and had an excellent record, Schiavi said.
The Sarmiento rail line, owned by private company TBA, links the center of Buenos Aires to a densely populated suburb 70km to the west of the city. It uses rolling stock made in Japan and acquired in the 1960s.
TBA said it did not know the cause of the crash and would bring “all information and videos to the courts.”
Schiavi said officials had a recording of conversations between the driver and the person in charge of the line.
As a probe got under way, rail workers complained about a lack of investment following the privatization of the rail network in the 1990s.
Unionist Roberto Nunez, -speaking on Radio del Plata, cited “irregularities, deficiencies and a situation limited to the provision of services.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in