Jakarta Trains Collide; 102 Die, 305 Hurt
At least 102 people died and 305 were injured today when two crowded Indonesian commuter trains collided, rescue workers said.
Many of the dead and injured were riding on the tops of cars or clinging to the platforms between them, witnesses said. Some were children on their way to school.
“The carnage was like a scene from Vietnam,” said one blood-splattered nurse. “I’ve never seen so many severed heads and torn limbs.”
Hundreds of troops worked under lights as night fell to free two boys and two adults believed trapped alive.
The trains crashed in a South Jakarta suburb early in the morning. Scores of ambulances ferried the dead and injured to six hospitals in the Indonesian capital, where emergency wards were crowded with wounded.
Hospital sources said 86 bodies were removed from the trains and 16 victims died in hospitals. Rescue workers said there were several bodies still in the wreckage.
The outbound train hit a train coming into Jakarta at high speed because of an apparent signaling error, railway officials said.
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