Philadelphia train crash: five dead in Amtrak derailment

Up to 10 carriages of the Washington-New York Amtrak service went off the track on Tuesday evening.

Authorities said they had no idea what caused the train wreck, which left some rail cars ripped open and strewn upside down and on their sides in the city’s Port Richmond neighbourhood along the Delaware River. Survivors described scenes of horror and chaos as passengers and luggage were tossed about careening train carriages.

‘Disastrous mess’

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told a news conference that at least five people were killed in the accident. He later said 65 others were taken to area hospitals, six of them critically injured.

Philadelphia-area hospitals and health systems collectively reported taking in 135 patients from the wreck.

“It’s an absolute disastrous mess,” Mr Nutter said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

Mr Nutter said there were 238 passengers and five crew members aboard the derailed train. Seven cars, including the engine, left the tracks. “I cannot say everyone is accounted for at this time,” he added.

The national government-backed passenger rail line provided no other details about the circumstances of the accident. It said Amtrak service along its busy north-east corridor between New York and Philadelphia had been suspended.

‘Rolled over’

Television footage broadcast on MSNBC showed dozens of emergency workers scrambling around the wreckage with flashlights, with train cars strewn about in a zig-zag pattern. In a video posted on social media, passengers could be heard crying and others were telling victims to crawl forward.

One passenger on board the train said the car he was seated in rocked as the train left the track, but did not flip upside down.

“All of a sudden we’re on our side and it looked like we were going to flip. We never flipped. We went on to the side and back off the side.”

Another said his car rolled over: “It swung, you could feel it off the tracks, and then we just rolled and rolled. And the next thing I knew, we were pushing out the emergency exit and I was outside and there were people screaming and bleeding and we helped them out and they’re OK now.”