Train hits building in Japan

A crowded Japanese commuter train derailed yesterday and slammed into an apartment building, killing at least 56 people and injuring hundreds in the country's worst rail accident in more than 40 years.

Workers struggled into the night to rescue people trapped in crumpled wreckage and twisted metal in the first-floor car park of the building.

"From what rescuers have been able to see, at least four people are believed alive," a fire department spokesman said. "But the train is very badly crushed and it's hard to tell much more than that. We cannot deny that others may be in there."

Officials said they did not know the cause of the crash, which took place shortly after the morning rush hour. But passengers said they felt the train, which had been late leaving the previous station, had been moving faster than normal.

The fire department spokesman said 56 had died. More than 400 people were taken to hospital.

Five of the train's seven cars derailed in the accident. The train was carrying about 580 passengers when it crashed into the building in Amagasaki, slightly west of Osaka, which was just six metres from the railway track.

Rescuers in hard hats clustered near the twisted remains of the front two cars, one of which had been smashed to less than half its normal width, using cutters and ladders to get inside.

Railway officials said that calculations had shown that a train could derail if it were travelling at nearly twice the speed limit at the site where the accident occurred.

Passenger Tatsuya Akashi, who had been on his way to work, told public broadcaster NHK it felt as if the train had speeded up as it went around a curve.

"I thought there were some strange swings, and then the train derailed. No one knew what happened and everyone kept screaming," he said.

It was the worst train accident in Japan since 1963 when about 160 people were killed in a multiple train collision at Yokohama, near Tokyo.

"There was no side to the car any more, and bleeding people were crawling out. I heard others screaming 'it hurts, it hurts'", a woman in her 20s told NHK.

Soldiers from Japan's Self-Defence Forces were sent to the scene to help with rescue efforts.

Operator West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) said the cause of the derailment was under investigation but it confirmed that the train had over-shot the station at its previous stop.

"The priority for now is to rescue the passengers," West Japan Railway President Takeshi Kakiuchi told a news conference.