AT LEAST 17 people are dead and 132 left injured on Sunday after an express train travelling to Taiwan’s southeast coast went off the tracks, officials said.

The Puyuma express train was carrying more than 300 passengers to Taitung city when it derailed at 4:50pm in the rural township of Tungshan, the transportation ministry’s railway administration said in a statement.

The 17 people died of cardiac arrest before they reached the hospital.

The remaining injured are being treated in four different hospitals.

The train began its journey in New Taipei City in northern Taiwan. The cause of the accident is as yet unknown.

Taiwan Railways Administration said the accident occurred in Suao, in eastern Yilan County, on a popular coastal route.

The Taiwan Railways Administration have not confirmed if any passengers remain trapped alive inside the train.

An AFP reporter at the scene said that more bodies were being brought out of the wrecked carriages.

Images from the site showed the Puyuma Express train completely derailed and lying zigzagged across the track.

All of the train’s eight carriages had derailed and five had flipped onto their side at Xinma station, the railways administration said.

One passenger told Apple Daily Taiwan that the train had been shaking during the journey.

The railways administration said there had been 366 people on board the service en route to the southern coastal city of Taitung.

Most of the deaths were in the first car, which flipped over, a government spokesman said. Local television reports said passengers were trying to escape through train windows and that bystanders had gathered to help them before rescuers arrived.

The defence ministry said it had sent in 120 soldiers to help the rescue.

President Tsai Ing-wen described the accident as a “major tragedy” in a tweet on Sunday evening.


“My thoughts are with all the victims and their families,” she added.

The incident is under investigation, the government said.