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The Chinese D train derailed with two of its carriages falling off a bridge.
Two Chinese bullet trains have collided, causing two carriages to fall 50ft from an elevated line and killing 16 passengeers in the first major accident on the country’s high-speed rail network.
The accident, just after 8.30pm in Shuangyu, close to the city of Wenzhou on China’s east coast, came after the first train lost power in a lightning strike and came to a halt.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, the D3115 train was then hit from behind by a second train, the D301 train. The two bullet trains, which run on electricity, are capable of hitting a top speed of 155mph.
The impact derailed the first four carriages of the D301 and sent two of them crashing from tracks that were built on concrete pillars around 50ft high.
A reporter from Zhejiang radio, on the scene of the accident, said one carriage had broken in half upon hitting the ground. The impact derailed the train and its third and fourth carriages fell from the side of the bridge.
Early reports said the death toll was 16, but each carriage was thought to have contained at least 100 people and there were fears that the total would rise.
Local hospitals said they had received 89 people with injuries, with three of them in a critical condition. Queues of people have formed in Wenzhou to donate blood.
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