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HELP ARRIVES: Rescuers removing a victim from one of the 14 derailed carriages. -- AP
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BEIJING - IT WAS mostly quiet onboard the T195 overnight high-speed train from Beijing to Qingdao.
At around 4.40am yesterday, most passengers were still asleep in their bunks, while some were getting ready to alight at the next stop in Zibo City, in eastern China's Shandong province.
Then, disaster struck.
Railcars tipped 90 degrees to one side, and in the next second, pitched 90 degrees the other way.
People stumbled, and thermos flasks filled with hot water went flying.
A woman passenger, surnamed Zhang, in compartment No.14, described the frightening scene.
'There were people pressing on me and hot water spilling everywhere,' she told the local Legal Evening News paper.
The chaos was caused when the passenger train, said to be travelling at 130kmh, considerably above the 80kmh speed limit, suddenly jumped its tracks, sending nine of its carriages - the 10th to 18th - toppling onto their sides.
It was too late for an oncoming train - travelling between Xuzhou city in neighbouring Jiangsu province and Yantai city in Shandong - to avoid a collision. It crashed into the T195 with such force that five of its own carriages derailed.
The T195 - a popular service for those commuting from Beijing to Qingdao - left the Chinese capital on Sunday evening and was less than three hours away from its destination. Qingdao, a seaside city in Shandong, is about 900km south of Beijing and host of the Olympics sailing events.
The pre-dawn crash left at least 70 dead and 416 injured. Among the wounded were Mr Hu Weidong, a coach with China's Olympic sailing team, and four French tourists.
Preliminary investigations said China's worst train accident in 11 years was caused by human error, according to state media.
Chinese leaders responded swiftly. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao were said by China's official media to be monitoring the situation, while Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang and Railways Minister Liu Zhijun headed immediately to Zibo to oversee the rescue efforts.
In a departure from previous practice, officials held responsible for the accident were sacked immediately.
Two top officials of the Jinan Railway Bureau - former director Chen Gong and former Communist Party chief Chai Tiemin - are now being investigated by the Railways Ministry.
Yesterday's accident is the second in the area in about four months. In January, 18 people were killed when a high-speed train travelling from Beijing to Qingdao ploughed into 100 workers carrying out track maintenance near Anqiu, a city in Shandong province some 100km away from Zibo.
The catastrophes come at a time when China is scrambling to boost its railway infrastructure. But while transport lines between major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are being upgraded, much of the country's rail network is outmoded.
The T195 service was travelling on a century-old track, according to news reports.
The Railways Ministry said it expected to restore train services tomorrow morning.
But for the wounded such as Mr Hu, getting back on their feet may not be so easy. According to doctors, he sustained spine and neck injuries, and could be paralysed.
tracyq@sph.com.sg
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