Bangkok, Jan 15 (EFE).- Rescue operations ended Thursday after a crane collapsed onto a passenger train in northeastern Thailand, killing at least 32 people and injuring dozens, as authorities also investigated a separate crane accident near Bangkok that left two people dead and one injured.
Emergency crews in Nakhon Ratchasima province, where the train crash occurred, confirmed the rescue operation had concluded late Thursday.
“There are 32 dead and 66 injured at this time, of whom 52 have been discharged and 14 remain hospitalized,” rescue officials told EFE, adding that three people were still listed as missing and may have left “the disaster area on their own.”
The rescue operation ended at about 9 p.m. local time (1400 GMT), the teams said. Cleanup and restoration of the damaged rail line are continuing and could take several more days, according to rescue officials.
The crash occurred Wednesday when a crane working on a high-speed rail project linking Thailand and China fell onto a moving passenger train as it passed through Ban Thanon Kot, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) northeast of Bangkok. The train was traveling from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani with 171 people on board, according to Thai authorities. The impact derailed the train and sparked a fire.
The project connecting Bangkok with the Chinese city of Kunming is overseen by a subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Group, according to the project’s website. The same company has previously been linked to the construction of a building that collapsed in Bangkok last March after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Myanmar, killing at least 89 people, according to Thai media.
Thailand’s Association of Structural Engineers attributed the train accident to “safety deficiencies,” and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul called for a “full investigation” into the incident.
Separately, two people were killed and one injured Thursday when another crane collapsed while building an elevated bridge on Rama II Highway in Samut Sakhon province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, police and rescue officials said.
“Two people died and one is injured,” police officer Saranyapong Aonsingh told EFE, adding that security forces were at the scene.
Thai rescue and fire services said on Facebook that the crane collapsed at about 9:15 a.m. local time (0215 GMT) for reasons still unknown, striking two vehicles on the roadway.
The two incidents occurred just one day apart and have intensified scrutiny of safety standards in Thailand’s construction sector. Authorities said both cases remain under investigation.
Construction-related accidents are frequent in the country, in part because of lax enforcement of safety regulations, according to engineers and labor advocates. EFE
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