Latest:

 

23:21

Local people are being urged to donate blood at the local blood center in order to help those injured in the train derailment. Zhejiang Traffic Radio Station 93 FM said 89 people have been hospitalized as of 10:50 pm.

23:18

Eight rescue vehicles from neighboring regions are on their way to the crash site with local fire chiefs promising to send their best crews and equipment to help with the rescue. The power in the derailed train carriages has been cut off and many passengers need assistance, according to Zhejiang Traffic Radio Station 93 FM on its Weibo, China’s micro blog.

23:04 (Beijing Time)

A radio station in Zhejiang province said on its Weibo micro blog that people and private vehicles crowded the crash site, making it difficult to continue the rescue work.

 

Previous report：

 

HANGZHOU - Two coaches of a bullet train fell off a bridge after derailing in East China's Zhejiang province late Saturday, local fire fighting sources said.

Witnesses said one of the coaches had fallen to ground, while the other one was hanging in the air.

The bridge is about 20 to 30 meters above the ground.

"Rescuers have dragged many passengers out of the coach falling on the ground," a witness told Xinhua over phone.

The details of casualties are unknown at the moment.

The train numbered D3115, running from the provincial capital Hangzhou to the southeastern city of Fuzhou, derailed at the section of Shuangyu town in Wenzhou city of Zhejiang at 8:34 pm, said fire fighters from Wenzhou.

The accident occurred after the train was hit by lightning and lost drive, and then rear-ended by another bullet train, the official microblog of Hangzhou TV "News 60 minutes" program quoted a local railway official as saying.

Further rescue is under way.

Hu Xiadong, deputy minister of railways, is heading to the scene for rescue work.

Two coaches of a bullet train fell off a bridge after derailing in East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Xinhua]

 

Photos uploaded to Weibo, China's micro blog, show the site of a derailed bullet train in Zhejiang province, July 23, 2011.[Photo by weibo.com/1670890060]