At least 11 people have been killed in China after a train ran over a group of railway workers, in one of the deadliest incidents on the country’s rail network in years.
The train, testing earthquake detection equipment, collided with construction workers at the Luoyang Town Railway Station in Kunming, the capital city of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. At least two others were rushed to hospital with injuries.
The test train was "passing normally through a curve inside Kunming Luoyang Town Station when a collision happened with construction workers who had entered the track area", the Kunming Railway Bureau said.
After the accident, the railway authorities and the local administration "immediately activated the emergency response plan", according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The station in Yunnan province has since resumed normal services, while the cause of the accident is being investigated, railway officials added.
State media reported that the railway authorities will hold relevant responsible persons accountable in accordance with laws and regulations and "draw profound lessons from the accident". It added that the railway authorities will make every effort to ensure the safety and stability of railway transportation.
The Kunming railway authority on social media expressed condolences to the victims and their families.
China's rail network is the world's largest, spanning more than 160,000km and racking up billions of trips each year. Though praised for its efficiency, it has drawn scrutiny after several high-profile incidents, such as a 2011 crash in the eastern province of Zhejiang that killed 40 and injured 200.
In 2022, a high-speed train derailed near Rongjiang county in Guizhou province, killing a conductor and injuring eight other people. A year before, nine people were killed when a train in the northwestern province of Gansu ran into workers on a section of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway.
In 2020, one person was killed and 127 others were injured in a train derailment in Chenzhou. The worst recent rail disaster was recorded in 2008, when 66 people were killed after two passenger trains collided near Zibo in eastern China’s Shandong province.
