More than 30 injured as train hits truck, derails in Yokohama

YOKOHAMA. KAZINFORM More than 30 people were injured after a train collided with a truck and derailed Thursday in Yokohama, police and rescuers from the city near Tokyo said.

The accident occurred at around 11:40 a.m. at a crossing on the Keikyu Line between Kanagawa-Shimmachi and Nakakido stations. Multiple carriages of the train derailed and the truck caught fire, they said.

The police said the 67-year-old driver of the truck was seriously injured after possibly becoming trapped underneath the train, Kyodo News reports.

A female passenger in her 20s was also seriously hurt, police said.

The truck is suspected to have been stranded on the crossing when the train hit it, according to the police.

«I thought I would die,» said a 23-year-old man who managed to escape through a window of the train's first carriage. He said he heard another man yell, «Watch out» before the impact.

A plume of black smoke could be seen rising into the air after the incident and the first car of the train was lifted off the tracks. The red carriage leaned precariously over a parallel track with its front windows shattered.

Yellow fruit, believed to have been in the truck, was scattered along the tracks and elsewhere, while metal poles next to the tracks were badly bent.

«I heard a loud noise and went outside and saw tangerines scattered by the train tracks. There were passengers getting out of the third carriage,» said a man in his 50s who works near the tracks.

«I heard what sounded like an explosion, the ground rumbled, and the glass windows of my house shook,» said Mika Fujita, 59, who lives in the area.

Fujita saw a man who said he managed to escape from the first train car. «I can't stop shaking from the massive impact,» the man was quoted as saying.

Fujita also said she saw another woman talking on her mobile phone while sobbing uncontrollably.

The government set up a liaison office at the prime minister's office to oversee the response to the accident, while the Japan Transport Safety Board said it will dispatch railway accident investigators to the site.

The Keikyu Line, operated by private railway company Keikyu Corp., runs through Tokyo and the neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture, carrying passengers to and from Haneda airport.

Originally founded in 1898, it was established as Keikyu Corp. in 1948. The firm also operates bus companies and hotels.