dead in bullet train accident in China

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Chinese ambulance (icon image)

Photo: Xinhua/IMAGO

A high-speed train driver died in a train crash in China.

Seven passengers and a controller were injured when the train derailed in southwest China's Guizhou province, state broadcaster CCTV reported, according to AFP.

The train was on its way to Guangdong Province when it ran over boulders.

Two cars derailed after the train in Guizhou province was suddenly hit by a landslide as it entered a tunnel, the dpa reports.

In parts of China, there are repeated floods and landslides in the rainy summer months, causing deaths and injuries.

The locomotive was badly damaged, but the rest of the train was largely intact, according to video images released by numerous Chinese media outlets.

The injured were taken to hospitals but their lives are not in danger, CCTV reported.

The reports showed distraught passengers and screaming children in one of the train's carriages.

Food and other items were strewn on the floor, but other than that the car appeared undamaged.

According to CCTV, all passengers were evacuated from the train.

The authorities initiated investigations into the cause of the accident.

China has the world's largest bullet train network

Fatal train accidents have been rare in China in recent years, the country has the world's largest network of high-speed trains.

In 2017, 12 workers died in an explosion during construction work on a tunnel on a high-speed railway in Guizhou.

In 2011, around 40 people died when a bullet train crashed in the east Chinese city of Wenzhou near Shanghai.

At that time, the authorities were accused of neglecting safety due to the rapid expansion of the railway network.

ani/AFP/dpa