High-speed train derails in China

ZIBO, China - Some passengers were sleeping, but others were standing in the aisle waiting to get off when their high-speed train derailed, toppling into a ditch "like a roller coaster" and slamming into another train. At least 70 people died and more than 400 were injured.

China reacted swiftly to its worst train accident in a decade, sending top officials and soldiers to Zibo, the site of Monday's pre-dawn crash in eastern China's Shandong province, and sacking two railway officials.

Authorities were quoted as saying that human error was to blame. The official Xinhua News Agency also said one of the trains was traveling too fast.

The crash occurred when a train headed from Beijing to the coastal city of Qingdao‚ site of the sailing competition during the

Olympics in August‚ derailed and hit a second passenger train just before dawn. Nine of the first train's carriages were knocked into a dirt ditch, Railway Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping said in a statement.

News photos showed rescuers pulling passengers from a rail car sitting on its side. Survivors, bundled in white bed sheets from the sleeper cars, stood or sat near the wreckage. The death toll could rise, with 70 people hospitalized in critical condition, said Xinhua.

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