With over 51 dead after a packed train derailed inside a tunnel in Taiwan, we look back on some of the worst rail disasters of the last 10 years:
Pakistan pilgrims
At least 74 people died and more than 40 were injured on October 31, 2019 when a fire broke out on an overcrowded passenger train in the Punjab carrying pilgrims to a religious gathering near Lahore. The blaze is thought to have been started by gas canisters exploding as passengers prepared a meal on board.
India: Crowds on tracks
A speeding train ran over revellers watching fireworks during a Hindu festival in northern India on October 19, 2018, killing about 60 people. Eyewitnesses said the crowd had gathered on the tracks in the city of Amritsar to watch a fireworks display marking the Dussehra festival.
Alexandria crash
Two trains collided on the Cairo-Alexandria mainline on August 11, 2017, killing 41 people and injuring scores more. One train is thought to have broken down when the other one slammed into it.
Iran collision
Two trains collided and one caught fire in the northern province of Semnan on November 25, 2016, killing 44 people and injuring dozens more, in one of Iran’s worst ever rail disasters. The crash was put down to human error.
Indian express disaster
At least 146 people died when an Indore-Patna Express train derailed in Uttar Pradesh on November 20, 2016, sending carriages crashing into each other. Around 2,000 people were believed to have been on board when the accident happened at the peak of India’s marriage season.
Speeding Cameroon train
A train travelling from the capital Yaounde to the economic hub of Douala derailed on October 21, 2016, killing at least 79 people and injuring around 550 others. It was travelling “abnormally” fast before the crash, the investigation into the crash concluded.
Congo carnage
A goods train carrying hundreds of illegal passengers flew off the rails in a swampy and inaccessible part of the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo on April 22, 2014, killing at least 136 people. Many had to be buried in mass graves nearby.
Spain derailing
Some 80 people were killed and another 144 injured when a high-speed train slammed into a concrete wall on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela on July 24, 2013. The train had been approaching a curve at more than twice the speed limit and the driver is charged with negligent homicide.
Canada inferno
A runaway train carrying millions of litres of crude oil started a deadly inferno when it crashed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic. The blaze burned for two days leaving 47 people dead.
The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train had been parked overnight at a nearby town when it slipped away. The disaster appeared to have been caused a failure to properly set the hand brakes.
Egypt school children
Forty-seven school children were killed when a train smashed into their bus in central Egypt on November 17, 2012 after a railway signal operator fell asleep.
Argentina
In one of the country’s worst ever rail accidents, 51 people were killed and more than 700 injured when a packed commuter train slammed into barriers at a railway terminus in Buenos Aires on February 22, 2015. The accident highlighted the poor condition of Argentina’s railways, which were privatised in the 1990s.
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