BANDUNG, Indonesia (AP) — Two trains collided on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Friday, causing carriages to buckle and overturn and killing at least four people, officials said.
The accident happened about 500 meters (yards) from Cicalengka train station in West Java province, said Ayep Hanapi, a spokesperson for PT Kereta Api Indonesia, the national railways.
He said the Turangga express train carrying 287 passengers was traveling from Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, when it plowed into a Bandung Raya commuter train with 191 passengers heading to Padalarang from Cicalengka station at about 6:30 a.m.
“All passengers of the two crashed trains have been evacuated safely,” Hanapi said, adding that 28 people were injured. He said 22 were being treated at a hospital, mostly with head injuries.
West Java Police spokesperson Ibrahim Tompo said at least four train crew members were killed — the driver and his assistant on the commuter train and a steward and a security guard on the express train.
Television video showed several carriages overturned or badly mangled. One carriage plunged into a nearby rice field. People screamed as panicked passengers tried to get out of the train. Some walked through the fields carrying suitcases and other items as ambulances evacuated the injured.
Transportation ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati apologized for the accident and for the disruption of railway services across Java island.
She said the cause of the accident was being investigated and that rescuers had evacuated all passengers and were working to remove the trains to restore service.
Train accidents are common on Indonesia’s aging railroad network, especially at crossings.
In October 2013, a passenger train slammed into a minibus that was carrying families of hajj pilgrims at an unguarded crossing in West Java’s Indramayu district, killing 13 people. A train from the capital, Jakarta, in 2010 plowed into the rear of a train that was sitting at a station in Central Java province, killing 36 people.
The government has spent billions of dollars on improving infrastructure, including roads, railways, airports and power plants, in the world’s largest archipelago nation, home to more than 270 million people.
A $7.3 billion high-speed railway, Southeast Asia’s first, has been operating commercially since October. The 142-kilometer (88-mile) railway, a key project under China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, has drastically reduced travel time between Jakarta and Bandung from three hours to about 40 minutes.
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