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Death toll from China train derailment hits 19

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-23 20:34

Rescuers work at the site where a passenger train bound for South China's Guilin city derailed in Dongxiang county of Fuzhou city, East China's Jiangxi province, May 23, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

DONGXIANG, Jiangxi - The death toll from a train derailment in east China Sunday has risen to 19, said rescue authorities.

Related readings:  10 killed as passenger train derails in E China

Another 71 people were injured, 11 of them seriously, after the accident in Jiangxi Province, said a statement from the rescue headquarters.

A spokesman of the headquarters said the train and 8,000 cubic meters of mud and rocks from the landslide were removed from the tracks, after 2,000 rescuers using heavy machinery completed the rescue operation.

The train was en route from Shanghai to the scenic city of Guilin in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, when it came off the tracks at around 2:10 am in Dongxiang county, Fuzhou city.

It derailed after hitting a section of track that had been damaged by a a landslide, the Ministry of Railways said in a press release early Sunday. The Shanghai-Kunming railway line was closed after the accident.

"Only southbound trains to Guilin are expected to resume at around 8 p.m.," said the spokesman.

Northbound trains might resume at midnight, as workers were still repairing the damaged rail bed and cables.

President Hu Jintao has urged railway authorities to reopen the lines as soon as possible.