{"id":369131,"date":"2026-01-14T10:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/369131\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:20:08","slug":"at-least-22-killed-as-crane-collapses-on-train-in-thailand-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/369131\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 22 killed as crane collapses on train in Thailand | Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">At least 22 people in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/thailand\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thailand<\/a> have been killed and scores injured after a crane collapsed onto a passenger train, derailing it on Wednesday, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Footage from the scene verified by Agence France-Presse showed the crane\u2019s broken structure resting on giant concrete pillars, with smoke rising from the wreckage of the train below.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Rescuers worked to extract passengers from the tilted carriages in Nakhon Ratchasima province, north-east of the capital, Bangkok.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAt around 9am, I heard a loud noise, like something sliding down from above, followed by two explosions,\u201d said local resident Mitr Intrpanya, 54, who was at the scene. \u201cWhen I went to see what had happened, I found the crane sitting on a passenger train with three carriages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe metal from the crane appeared to strike the middle of the second carriage, slicing it in half.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Thatchapon Chinnawong, the district police chief, said 22 people had been confirmed dead and 80 more were injured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe are now asking the hospital to say how many people are in critical condition,\u201d Thatchapon said.<\/p>\n<p>A train travelling from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani lies damaged after being derailed. Photograph: Ministry Of Transport\/Reuters<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/thailand\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thailand<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It aims to connect Bangkok to Kunming in China via Laos by 2028 as part of China\u2019s vast \u201cbelt and road\u201d infrastructure initiative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cA crane collapsed onto a train causing it to derail and catch fire,\u201d the Nakhon Ratchasima provincial public relations department said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Live footage aired by local media showed rescue workers rushing to the scene, with a brightly coloured train derailed on its side as smoke billowed from the debris.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Thatchapon said authorities were pausing the rescue operation due to \u201cchemical leakage\u201d at the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The department said the train was travelling from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani province.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The transport minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, said 195 people were onboard.Authorities are trying to identify the deceased. He ordered officials to determine the cause of the accident, according to a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Rescue workers attend the train accident. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Thailand has around 5,000km (3,107 miles) of railway but the run-down network has long driven people to favour travel by road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Upon completion of the 600km high-speed railway, Chinese-made trains will run from Bangkok to Nong Khai, on the Mekong river border with Laos, at up to 250 km\/h.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Industrial and construction site accidents have long been common in Thailand, where lax enforcement of safety regulations often leads to deadly incidents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 22 people in Thailand have been killed and scores injured after a crane collapsed onto a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-369131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}