At least 70 people are dead more than 400 injured after China's worst train accident for more than a decade. Two officials in Shandong have already been sacked.
The damaged section of the Jinan-Qingdao Railway has been repaired and normal service should be restored on Tuesday morning.
The accident happened before daybreak on Monday when a train travelling from Beijing to the coastal city of Qingdao derailed and crashed into a second passenger train heading from Shandong to Jiangsu Province.
Passenger train T195 en route from Beijing to Qingdao city
in eastern China derailed and hit train 5034 early on Monday,
causing "heavy casualties", witnesses and a government
spokesman confirmed.(Xinhua Photo)
Authorities have ruled out the possibility of terrorism. Preliminary investigations suggested the accident was caused by human error.
One of the injured is a Chinese Sailing team coach, who was heading to Qingdao which will host the Olympic sailing competition. The youngest of the injured is a three-year-old boy. Four French were injured. No foreign citizens were killed.
Rescue teams rushed to the scene immediately. Soldiers and armed police were also at the site to help with the rescue work.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao urged local authorities to do their utmost to rescue the survivors, identify the cause of the accident and restore normal train services on the line.
Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang (R1) comforts the
injured passenger of the trains colliding
accident, in a hospital of Zibo, east China's
Shandong Province, on April 28, 2008.
Vice Premier, Zhang Dejiang, and the Minister of Railways, Liu Zhijun, went to the accident site to oversee the rescue work, and visited the hospitalized victims. Local hospitals and hotels have been cleared to accommodate the victims and their families. Stranded passengers are being transported by road. Two high-ranking railway officials in the province were sacked after the crash.
