At least 22 people have been killed and about 80 injured when a construction crane fell on a passenger train in northeast Thailand.
According to Al Jazeera, the accident took place on Wednesday in the Sikhio district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, 230km (143 miles) northeast of Bangkok. The train was headed from the Thai capital to Ubon Ratchathani province.
Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said in a statement that there were 195 passengers on board and he had ordered an investigation to be carried out.
Those killed were in two of the three carriages hit by the crane, he said.
As per police a fire has been extinguished and rescue work is now under way.
Footage from the scene verified by Agence France-Presse showed the crane’s broken structure resting on giant concrete pillars, with smoke rising from the wreckage of the train below.
Rescuers worked to extract passengers from the tilted carriages in Nakhon Ratchasima province, north-east of the capital, Bangkok.
The accident happened at a construction site that is part of a $5.4bn project backed by Beijing to build a high-speed rail network in Thailand.
It aims to connect Bangkok to Kunming in China via Laos by 2028 as part of China’s vast “belt and road” infrastructure initiative.
