Hong Kong: Mass Transit Train Derails, Injuring Eight

A Mass Transit Railway (MTR) East Rail Line train in Hong Kong derailed at Hung Hom station on Tuesday morning, forcing hundreds of passengers to evacuate onto the tracks and leaving eight people injured.

The train, which was heading from Mong Kok East to Hung Hom, derailed at 8:32 a.m. after two of its carriages became detached. One passenger, named Mr. Fung, told Apple Daily that commuters began screaming after the train started aggressively vibrating. “We saw a door fall off the train,” he said. “There was a lot of dust in the cabin.”

Another passenger, identified as Mr. Lee, described how the train suddenly ground to a halt: “Very shortly after the train restarted, I guess around 10 seconds, it stopped suddenly. It was very abnormal. It vibrated strongly.”

Train derailment during morning rush hour injures #HongKong pic.twitter.com/ry08P1yfdU

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) September 17, 2019

The cause of the incident remains under investigation, although there was no immediate evidence of foul play.

The chairman of MTR corp Rex Auyeung Pak Kuen said that they had not had a derailment in many years and reaffirmed that the cause was currently unclear. “We will work together with the government to find out the truth as soon as possible so as to continue to provide safe services,” he said. “We apologize that our passengers were injured in the accident.”

The company’s chief executive Jacob Kam recently told the Financial Times in an interview before the accident that ongoing pro-democracy protesters – and the violent pro-China thugs that have repeatedly chased them into MTR stations – are posing an “unprecedented” challenge to their operations and that the system was struggling to cope.

“It is getting more and more difficult because we are running out of spares,” he said. “In fact, what we’ve done is we have cannibalized parts from other stations and brought them to the damaged stations to try to keep things running.”

There is no immediate evidence tying the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement or the violent pro-China backlash to the train derailment Tuesday.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan arrived at the scene at approximately 10:30 a.m. to address local media. “The derailment incident is a very serious incident, and the government attaches great importance to it,” he said. When asked about the possible cause, Chan confirmed that authorities “would not rule out any possibilities” but ” at this stage won’t speculate on any particular suggestions.”

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