By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The death toll from China’s worst train crash increased to 71 on Wednesday, with more than 400 injured after two trains smashed into each other in eastern China earlier this week, national media said.
The passenger train bound from Beijing for the resort city of Qingdao derailed on a bend in Zibo in the Shandong province on Monday, sending at least 12 carriages into a ditch, before crashing into a second train, traveling from Shandong’s Yantai city to Xuzhou.
Only 50 of the dead have been formally identified. At least 60 of the 416 injured are in a critical condition, while 338 are still in hospital. Four French nationals were taken to Beijing for treatment, China’s Xinhua news agency said.
Preliminary reports said the accident occurred as the Beijing train was traveling at a speed of 131 kilometers per hour (80 mp/h), while the speed limit for the stretch of track is 80 kmp/h, the agency said.