A passenger train that was carrying an estimated 350 people has derailed in a tunnel in eastern Taiwan, which led to the deaths of 36 people and injuring dozens more, authorities said.
The train, traveling to Taitung, derailed in a tunnel just north of Hualien Friday morning, causing several carriages to hit the wall of the tunnel. Around 60 people have been safely evacuated from the first three carriages.
Images of the crash scene show carriages inside the tunnel crumbled and ripped apart from the impact, passengers gathering suitcases and bags in a tilted, derailed carriage and others walking along the tracks littered with wreckage.
The accident occurred at the start of a long weekend for the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day hospital.
Taiwan’s mountainous east coast is a popular tourist destination. In 2018, 18 people died and 175 were injured when a train derailed in northeastern Taiwan, in the island’s worst rail disaster in more than three decades.