At least 34 dead in Taiwan train crash

At least 34 people have died and dozens have been injured in a train crash in Taiwan, according to police. Local media reported a truck fell from a cliff in eastern Taiwan and landed on a train line, where a passenger train emerging from a tunnel smashed into it. Media reports say 350 passengers were on board the train when the crash occurred near the Toroko Gorge scenic area around 9am Friday – a public holiday.

This image made from a video released by Ministry of the Interior shows the train having come off its tracks (Ministry of the Interior/AP)

With much of the train still trapped in the tunnel, escaping passengers were forced to scale doors, windows and roofs to reach safety.

Television footage and photos posted by witnesses on the website of the official Central News Agency showed people climbing through the open door of a railcar just outside the entrance to the tunnel.

Taiwan’s last major rail crash was in October 2018, when an express train derailed while rounding a tight corner on the north-east coast, killing at least 18 people and injuring nearly 200.

In 1991, a collision in western Taiwan killed 30 people and injured 112 in the country’s deadliest train accident.