A rare train derailment yesterday disrupted services in Hong Kong, injuring eight people, rail operator MTR Corp said, threatening commuter chaos during rush hour.
The disruption to a usually seamless network used by nearly 6 million people every weekday happened after a train derailed while leaving a station in the Kowloon area, the company said.
Images from the scene showed three carriages had left the tracks and were zigzagged across the rails near Hung Hom station in Kowloon — a busy interchange that provides services to mainland China.
Photo: AFP
Five hundred passengers were evacuated from the train
The government’s information department eight people reported injuries when they arrived at the concourse of the station and five had been taken to hospital.
MTR Corp chairman Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen (歐陽伯權) told reporters that a derailment had not happened in many years and the cause was not immediately clear.
“We will work together with the government to find out the truth as soon as possible so as to continue to provide safe services,” he said. “We apologize that our passengers were injured in the accident.”
MTR operation director Adi Lau Tin-shing (劉天成) told media that “a short nearby section of rail track had been replaced yesterday” and the condition of the replacement is “not unusual” according to his visual assessment, adding that the train carriages would be rerailed and removed from the site.
Intercity train services to mainland Chinese cities, including Guangzhou, Dongguan and Beijing, were canceled for the day due to the accident, the MTR said.
MTR Corp has been targeted by protesters since it refused to hand over CCTV footage of police last month beating demonstrators and passengers on a subway train.
Radio Television Hong Kong said the train had suddenly swayed and a door had flown off before the train stopped.
Additional reporting by AFP
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