Spectacular 25-car train crash strands thousands of rail travellers

A spectacular cargo train derailment left cars piled up like toys, blocking two busy tracks and stranding thousands of travellers on Malaysia’s busy rail network on Friday. The train’s two engines and 25 empty cement cars were thrown from the tracks along a heavily travelled north-south rail corridor in the northern state of Perak. Remarkably, the only casualties in the accident were the train’s conductor and his assistant, who were slightly injured. Two rail lines were blocked by the resulting pile-up of train cars. About 12,000 commuters were affected and that some services would be halted for 48 hours. “Work to clear the train tracks is going on,” rail operator KTM Berhad said.

The two train drivers did not sustain any injury. However, they have been sent to hospital for examination. There was a small fire at the engine section of the train and firefighters were only allowed to enter the location after the electricity supply in the area was shut off

Fire chief Mohd Khairul Jamil

Asia-Pacific