[Nicke]

Trains crash in Bangkok's new subway, 100 injured

BANGKOK : Two trains on Bangkok's five-month-old subway system crashed during the morning rush hour Monday, injuring around 100 people and forcing authorities to suspend services, officials and witnesses said.

"The accident happened around 9:30 am (0230 GMT) when the train headed to Hua Lam Pong left Thailand's cultural center station and was hit from behind by another train that was empty," police Major General Dusitsan Teraphat, deputy metropolitan commissioner, told Thai television.

"Initial reports said almost 100 people were injured. Police and authorities rescued all passengers from the train," Dusitsan said.

The head of Bangkok's subway system, Prapat Chongsanguan, told Thai television that the empty train had just left a maintenance station where it received repairs when it slammed into the crowded rush-hour train carrying some 700 people.

He said officials were investigating the cause of the accident.

Prapat told reporters at the scene that the driver of the empty train had been hospitalized with serious injuries.

One passenger, Wasita Buranasing, told Thai television that she heard a loud sound before the accident.

"Passengers were trapped inside the train for 10 or 15 minutes before the doors opened," she said in an telephone interview on television.

The train was heavily damaged, with broken handrails and debris tossed about, she said.

Television footage show people being carried from the station, some of them visibly bleeding.

-- AFP 2005-01-17