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Washington, United States: a minimum of three people were killed and multiple others injured when a US train derailed Saturday afternoon, rail operator Amtrak said, with rescuers rushing to securely evacuate all passengers and crew.
Approximately 141 passengers and 16 crew members were on board when eight train carriages — travelling from Chicago to Seattle — came off the tracks at around 4 pm (2200 GMT) in northern Montana.
“We are deeply saddened to find out local authorities are now confirming that three people have lost their lives as a results of this accident,” the firm said, adding that there have been also “reported injuries” among those traveling on the train.
The three deaths were confirmed by the local Sheriff’s Department, ABC News reported, but authorities didn’t say what percentage people were injured.
It was not immediately clear what caused the incident.
Footage posted on social media showed people waiting by the tracks, luggage strewn next to them, with train carriages seen listing off the rails and a minimum of one toppled onto its side.
The government’s National Transportation and Safety Board said on Twitter that it had been launching a “go-team to investigate” the derailment.
Amtrak said it had initiated its “Incident Response Team” and sent emergency personnel to the scene to help local authorities within the evacuation effort.
Montana’s Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator Amanda Frickel told the ny Times that “well over 50 people had been injured”.
She said teams of rescuers were at the scene and multiple hospitals — also as medical helicopters — were on standby.
Authorities weren’t releasing further details for the nonce , she said, adding: “Everybody who is alive has been extricated from the wreck.”
The Empire Builder train derailed during a remote area near Joplin, Montana, a town of around 200 people near the border with Canada.
The US rail network suffers from chronic underfunding and fatal accidents sometimes occur.
In 2018, two people died in South Carolina when an Amtrak train traveling on the incorrect tracks collided with a stationary rattler , during a crash later blamed on safety oversights.
A year earlier, an Amtrak train traveling on a replacement route for the primary time derailed in Washington state, killing a minimum of three people as cars plunged off a bridge onto a busy highway at the peak of morning hour .
