Six killed in freight derailment

Six people, including four crew members and two villagers, were confirmed dead after a freight train owned by China’s largest State-owned aluminum producer flew off the rails in Gongyi, Central China’s Henan province, at 10 pm on Wednesday, according to the local publicity department.

The train ran over the railway refuge siding due to a brake failure and collided with a house located at the end of the siding, train owner Aluminum Corporation of China Limited told Jiemian News on Thursday.

The cause of the accident is under investigation. Remedial work is continuing after about 30 hours’ rescue work, the department said.

The accident took place at a continuous downhill area where there is an approximately 22-meter decrease in altitude per kilometer. The train weighed over 2,350 tons in total, with 25 cars each loaded with 60 tons of aluminum ore, the department said.

The 22-kilometer railway was constructed in the 1950s to transport aluminum ore. There are currently three trains setting off from Gongyi to the corporation on a daily basis, it said.