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At least 63 killed in train derailment in Cameroon At least 600 taken to hospital after 70 killed in Cameroon train derailment
(about 4 hours later)
At least 63 people have been killed and more than 500 injured after a packed Cameroon passenger train derailed, leaving debris strewn across nearby tracks as carriages swung off the rails. Authorities in Cameroon rushed more than 600 injured people to hospitals in the country’s two main cities on Saturday a day after an overcrowded train derailed, killing more than 70 people.
The train, travelling from the capital Yaoundé to the economic hub Douala on Friday, was crammed with people due to road traffic disruption between the two cities and came off the tracks just before reaching the central city of Eséka. Bodies remained strewn along the tracks at Eseka, which is about 75 miles west of Yaoundé, as rescue workers searched for more injured or dead. The injured were being taken to hospitals in the capital, Yaoundé, and the port city where the train was heading, Douala, officials said, as the president declared Monday to be a national day of mourning.
The death toll had stood at 55, but the communications minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said: “Since the last figures were given, other bodies have been found. As of right now, we are at 63 dead and at least 500 wounded. The work to clear the wreckage is continuing.” “My sincere condolences to the families of the victims of the derailment of the Camrail train,” President Paul Biya said on his official Facebook page. About 70 people died and 600 were wounded, he said, and the cause of the crash was being investigated.
Many of the injured were in a very serious condition. The cause of the accident remained unclear. The local hospital, with only about 60 beds, had been overwhelmed, said transport minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o. “I am calling on everyone to double efforts to save the lives of the injured,” he said.
“Intervention and security teams have been mobilised,” said the rail company Camrail, a subsidiary of the French company Bollore. Rescue workers and medical staff at hospitals put the death toll at 73, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to the press about the issue. State radio reported more than 75 dead.
Work began during the night to remove the derailed wagons from the line – one of the main routes for goods and passengers between the coast and interior. The train had been carrying about 1,300 passengers, instead of its capacity of 600. The passenger load was higher because a road had collapsed because of landslides following heavy rains between Yaoundé and Douala.
Emergency services had been sent from the economic capital to reinforce teams closer to the scene of the accident, while firefighters were coming from Eséka, said the Doula regional governor, Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua. The 30-year-old railway line and train could not carry the load, officials told state radio.
Transport ministry officials have also gone to the accident site. One of those injured died as he arrived in Douala, and “we are doing everything possible to save the lives of the close to 200 victims sent to Douala”, said Governor Ivaha Diboua Dieudonné of the western Littoral region.
The train left Yaoundé at about 11am (1000 GMT) and derailed about an hour later some 200km from the capital, the transport minister said.
The train route was particularly busy after a bridge on the road linking Yaoundé and Douala collapsed in heavy rain on Thursday, paralysing traffic and sending extra waves of travellers on to trains. The effects of the rain also impeded the arrival of emergency aid.
The road is one of the busiest in the country and one of the main commercial routes in central Africa, carrying trade towards landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic.
Many travellers were still blocked on either side of the collapsed bridge late on Friday, said Martial Missimikim of the road safety NGO Securoute.