At least 28 people were killed and 80 others injured when a passenger train derailed in northeastern Thailand after a construction crane fell onto three of its carriages, authorities said.
The crash occurred in the Sikhio district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, about 230 kilometers northeast of Bangkok. The train was traveling from the capital to Ubon Ratchathani province when it was struck, forcing multiple carriages off the track.
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Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said there were 195 people on board and ordered a thorough investigation. He said those killed were in two of the three carriages hit by the crane.
Images shared by the Transport Ministry showed carriages overturned beside shrubland, firefighters dousing flames and smoke billowing from a wrecked coach. Footage of the crash site verified by Reuters showed rescue workers prying open twisted metal to extract casualties, while badly injured passengers were loaded into ambulances.
The crane was part of an elevated high-speed rail project being built above the existing rail line, according to officials. Part of the collapsed crane remained propped against stanchions erected to support the new link, which is designed to connect Thailand’s network to China via Laos.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing that Beijing attached “great importance to the safety of projects and personnel” and was examining the situation. “At present, it seems that the relevant section was under construction by a Thai enterprise. The cause of the accident is still under investigation,” she said.
The Thai government said last year that more than one-third of construction had been completed on the segment connecting Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, with the full line to Nong Khai on the Lao border targeted for completion by 2030. Authorities did not provide a timeline for when rail service through the area of the crash might resume.
Emergency teams and railway officials worked into the evening to secure the site and clear debris as investigators documented the damaged rolling stock and heavy equipment. Officials did not immediately release the identities of the dead or the condition of those hospitalized.
In a brief statement, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation confirmed the casualty figures and said recovery operations would continue as engineers assessed the stability of the elevated structures above the line.
The derailment is among the deadliest rail incidents in Thailand in recent years and comes amid one of the country’s most complex infrastructure undertakings, with multiple high-speed corridors under construction across active rail routes.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
