Taiwanese prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for a construction site manager whose truck is believed to have caused a train accident in which at least 50 people died.
An injured woman arrives at a hospital in Hualien, Taiwan. Photo: AFP
The crash, Taiwan's worst rail accident in seven decades, occurred after an express train hit a truck that had slid down a bank next to the track from a construction site. The manager of the construction site is suspected of having failed to engage the brake properly.
The train was carrying almost 500 people on its way from Taiwan's capital, Taipei, to Taitung on the east coast, when it derailed in a tunnel just north of Hualien.
Yu Hsiu-duan, head of the Hualien prosecutors office, told reporters late on Friday an arrest warrant had been sought and that was now was being handled by the court system.
"To preserve relevant evidence, we have several groups of prosecutors at the scene and are searching the necessary places," she said.
Workers on Saturday began moving the back part of the train, which was relatively undamaged having come to a stop outside the tunnel, down the track and away from the site of a accident.
The more heavily damaged sections of the train are still mangled inside the tunnel.
President Tsai Ing-wen is due in Hualien on Saturday to visit survivors, her office said. The government has also declared flags should be flown at half mast for three days in a show of mourning.
The train, from the capital Taipei to Taitung, was carrying people travelling for a long-weekend annual holiday.
Many people may have been standing because the train was so full.
The 408 train is one of the fastest deployed on a network that is generally considered safe. It can reach speeds of 130km/h.
Friday's crash is Taiwan's worst rail disaster in decades. President Tsai Ing-wen has sent her condolences to the families of the victims and ordered an investigation.
The latest reports from the National Fire Agency say 494 people were on the train, with 50 dead and 66 injured and taken to hospital.
The site of the train crash in Hualian, Taiwan. Photo: AFP
'Sudden violent jolt'
The crash took place at about 9am local time.
Some people at the back of the train were able to walk away unscathed, while 100 were rescued from the first four carriages. Many of the dead, injured and trapped were in four crumpled carriages inside the tunnel.
"It felt like there was a sudden violent jolt and I found myself falling to the floor," one female survivor told Taiwan's UDN. "We broke the window to climb to the roof of the train to get out."
Another rescued woman said: "My whole body fell to the floor. I hit my head and it started bleeding."
A 50-year-old survivor told Apple Daily she saw many people trapped under their seats and when she walked out of her carriage she saw bodies everywhere.
Local media reports say the train driver is among the dead.
Images show a large, yellow flatbed truck lying at the side of the tracks. A construction project has been under way near the north end of the tunnel.
It is not known how the vehicle slipped down the embankment.
The scene of where a train derailed inside a tunnel in the mountains of Hualien, eastern Taiwan. Photo: AFP
Survivors on stretchers
Other pictures showed people walking along the tracks with their belongings as they were evacuated from less badly affected carriages.
Other survivors were being carried away on stretchers with their necks in braces.
Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang visited the crash site on Friday afternoon.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Twitter: "I offer my sincere condolences to all those affected by this morning's rail accident in Taiwan."
Many of those on the train are believed to have been travelling to celebrate the Tomb Sweeping festival - a time when people pay their respects to the dead by visiting the graves of family members, sprucing them up and making offerings to their spirits.
The island's worst crash in recent history was in 1991, when 30 passengers were killed and 112 injured after two trains collided.
- BBC / Reuters