PETARUKAN, Indonesia – A train crashed into another parked at a railway station in central Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, many seriously, officials and witnesses said.
Rescuers spent hours searching through the mangled wreckage for trapped survivors of the accident, which occurred at 3 a.m. as many passengers were sleeping.
A train from the capital, Jakarta, plowed into the rear of a train that was sitting at a station in Petarukan, a coastal city in Central Java province, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan.
The force of the crash knocked several carriages off the track, and twisted debris from the train littered the area, together with open suitcases and scattered clothes.
Villagers helped police and rescuers carry victims to stretchers. Others brought body bags to waiting vehicles.
Cranes were used to remove some of the heavy mangled remains.
Investigators were trying to determine if human error was to blame.
"It may also have been mechanical," Ervan added. "We're checking to see if the signals of the parked train were working properly."
By early afternoon Saturday, only one body was still trapped inside an upended car, said Marsono, a rescuer at the scene. He, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.
Thirty-five other bodies were taken to three nearby hospitals, said Tri Yuniasari, a spokeswoman for the Hasyim Ashari hospital who was helping keep tallies.
Many of the more than 40 people who were hurt, including several children, had severe injuries and broken bones.
Indonesia — with a reputation for poor safety standards and maintenance — has been hit by a series of plane, train and ferry accidents in recent years that have killed hundreds.
Just an hour after Saturday's collision, another train crashed in the town of Solo, also in Central Java, killing at least one person, according to Ervan and officials at a nearby hospital.
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Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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