At least 25 people have died and around 80 have been injured this Wednesday in , after a construction crane collapsed on a passenger train and caused it to derail, according to local authorities. The accident occurred in the morning in the Sikhio district, in the province of Nakhon Ratchasima, about 230 kilometers northeast of Bangkok. Thai police have confirmed that search operations remain active, which could increase the number of victims.
The crane “collapsed on the train, causing a derailment and a fire at the site,” regional authorities initially reported. Images released by Thailand’s Ministry of Transport show several overturned carriages next to an area of bushes, as well as firefighters working to extinguish the flames while a dense column of smoke rises over the tracks.
The machine that fell on the train was operating in the works of an ambitious high-speed rail corridor that will connect Thailand with China through Laos. The line under construction runs on an elevated platform raised above the conventional railway track. A part of the collapsed crane is still supported by the concrete pillars raised for the new platform.
The Minister of Transport, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, has ordered the Thai state railway company to open “a thorough investigation” to clarify the causes of the accident. The new railway line project is being carried out under the direction of the State Railway of Thailand in cooperation with entities and institutions linked to Thailand and China.
A total of 195 passengers were traveling in the damaged convoy, according to the Ministry of Transport. The train covered the route between the Thai capital and the province of Ubon Ratchatani, one of the most used connections in the northeast of the country. The police have specified that the majority of the fatalities were traveling in two of the three cars hit by the crane.
Mitr Intrpanya, a 54-year-old resident of the area quoted by the AFP agency, described “a very loud noise” and “two explosions.” “I heard as if something fell from above,” he said. “When I approached to see what had happened, I found the crane fallen on top of a passenger train. The metal of the crane seemed to have hit the center of the second car, breaking it in two,” he said.
The spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, stated in a routine press conference that Beijing attaches great importance to the security of the projects in which it is involved and that it is analyzing the situation. “At the moment, it appears that the affected section was being built by a Thai company. The causes of the accident remain under investigation,” he noted.
The Thai Government indicated last year that more than a third of the works on the section linking Bangkok with Nahkon Ratchasima had already been completed and that the entire line, to Nong Khai, on the border with Laos, would be completed in 2030.
