NEW YORK • A New York City train derailed at a downtown Brooklyn terminal during morning rush hour, injuring more than 100 commuters in the metropolitan area's second major rail accident since late September.

Emergency crews swarmed Atlantic Terminal after the Long Island Rail Road train went off the tracks inside the busy transport hub on Wednesday morning, the New York City Fire Department said.

While none of the injuries were life-threatening, at least 11 people were taken to hospital.

The train, arriving from the Queens neighbourhood of Far Rockaway, failed to stop in time.

Travelling at a fairly slow speed, it derailed after striking a bumping block, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a briefing.

The bumping block prevents railway vehicles from going past the end of a section of track.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator told reporters that about 430 passengers and three crew members were on board the train at the time of the collision, and that 104 people were injured.

The front two cars of the six-carriage train were severely damaged. The station's partitions and bumping block were also damaged.

Passengers said the blood and chaos following the derailment were frightening.

"There were people crying," said Mr Aaron Neufeld, a 26-year-old paralegal who commutes on the rail line daily. "I saw some bloody faces... people were thrown to the ground."

Mr Tom Prendergast, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the railroad, said the locomotive engineer was probably responsible for failing to stop the train before it hit the bumping block.

In September last year, a New Jersey Transit train crashed into a terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, killing one woman and injuring 114 people, including the engineer.

REUTERS