{"id":412966,"date":"2026-01-14T19:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T19:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/412966\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T19:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T19:37:18","slug":"at-least-32-killed-after-crane-falls-on-passenger-train-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/412966\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 32 killed after crane falls on passenger train in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least 32 people have been killed and dozens injured after a construction crane fell on a passenger train in north-eastern Thailand, officials have said.<\/p>\n

The crane, which was being used to construct an elevated high-speed railway, fell on the moving train on Wednesday morning, local time, causing it to derail and catch fire.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The crane fell on a moving train in north-east Thailand. (Supplied: Fire & Rescue Thailand)<\/p>\n

The accident occurred in the Sikhio district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, 230km north-east of Bangkok. It was travelling from the capital to Ubon Ratchathani province.<\/p>\n

The Thai health ministry has said that at least 32 people were killed and 64 people were taken to hospital, seven in serious condition.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Authorities are still searching for bodies after the incident. (Reuters: Ministry of Transport)<\/p>\n

From a hospital bed in Nakhon Ratchasima, survivor Taew Eimertenbrink, 63, said her German husband “was killed instantly” in the derailment.<\/p>\n

“I was sleeping. He was sleeping. A metal bar was on him,” she told reporters.<\/p>\n

The couple was visiting from Germany and travelling to Taew’s hometown in Surin province, she said.<\/p>\n

“I thought travel by train was the best way, but… this happened.”<\/p>\n

Local resident Mitr Intrpanya, 54, told AFP he heard a “loud noise, like something sliding down from above, followed by two explosions” at around 9am.<\/p>\n

“When I went to see what had happened, I found the crane sitting on a passenger train with three carriages,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The metal from the crane appeared to strike the middle of the second carriage, slicing it in half.”<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said in a statement there were 195 passengers on board and that he had ordered a \u200cthorough investigation to be carried out.<\/p>\n

Those killed were in two of the three carriages hit by the crane, he said.<\/p>\n

Dozens of rescuers walked around the twisted metal carriages, searching with sniffer dogs for people still inside, while others used cranes from the high-speed rail project contractor Italian-Thai Development to remove debris.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rescuers worked to try and free those trapped in the train. (AP Photo: Sakchai Lalit)<\/p>\n

The firm expressed condolences, and promised to compensate the victims’ families and cover medical expenses for the injured.<\/p>\n

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, visiting the scene hours after the accident, said it was “clearly the fault of the construction company”.<\/p>\n

“We must determine the cause so this incident can serve as a lesson,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Thailand’s state rail operator said it ordered Italian-Thai to halt construction until an investigation was completed.<\/p>\n

The accident happened at a construction site that is part of a more than $5 billion ($7.47b) project backed by China to build a high-speed rail network in Thailand.<\/p>\n

It aims to connect Bangkok to Kunming in China via Laos by 2028 as part of Beijing’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.<\/p>\n

Thailand has around 5,000 kilometres of railway but the run-down network has long driven people to favour travel by road.<\/p>\n

Upon completion of the 600-kilometre high-speed railway, Chinese-made trains will run from Bangkok to Nong Khai, on the Mekong River border with Laos, at up to 250 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n

Wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 32 people have been killed and dozens injured after a construction crane fell on a passenger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22226,218206,218205,43,44,41,39,42,40,218204],"class_list":["post-412966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bangkok","tag-construction-crane","tag-elevated-high-speed-railway","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ubon-ratchathani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}