644 hurt in Soweto train smash
Baku, May 20 (AZERTAC). A total of 644 passengers were injured, two critically, when two trains collided in Meadowlands, Soweto on Thursday, Johannesburg paramedics said.
“We had a total of two men who were critically injured and airlifted to Charlotte Maxeke academic hospital, and 642 with minor and serious injuries,” Netcare 911 spokesman Jeff Wicks told Sapa from the scene.
“The increase in total injuries shows the chaos of the scene. We had people who were sprayed 200m around the trains. On arrival, paramedics found passengers from both trains lying on the track,” he said.
Johannesburg emergency services spokesman Synock Matobako said that about 150 of the injured were transported to various hospitals in the area.
A Sapa reporter on the scene said that a moving train had seemingly hit a stationary train at Phomolong station around 5.30pm.
Curious Sowetans had rushed to the scene out of concern for possible injured relatives.
“I heard a loud bang while watching television and came rushing to see if any of my relatives were in the train,” said bystander Teko Peu.
He was expecting his sister to arrive by the train from work. “I haven`t heard from her and I wonder whether she is among the injured.”
Gladwell Ntusi who was in one of the trains said he heard a loud bang, screams and realised something was wrong.
“People were screaming, some jumped out of the windows,” he said.
Injured people were lying next to the tracks covered with plastic to ward off the cold while waiting for their turn in the ambulance. Rescue workers searched the trains for more people.
“There is no one there, come this way,” shouted one paramedic directing his crew to where more people were in need of assistance.
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