Suffocation deaths in rail tunnel

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33067, 7 November 1972, Page 20

Suffocation deaths in rail tunnel

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) FUKUI (Japan) November 6. At least 28 people died of suffocation as hundreds of panic-stricken passengers fled from a burning express train in a nine-mile long tunnel near Fukui early today.

Police said that more than 500 persons were taken to hospital, most of them overcome by smoke, after the midnight fire aboard the 14coach express. Hours after the accident, rescue workers found many

bewildered passengers still huddled in tunnel alcoves hoping to escape swirling clouds of smoke and poisonous fumes.

Police with breathing apparatus scoured the Hokuriku tunnel for hours in search of an estimated 170 missing passengers.

But a spokesman eventually said everyone had been accounted for, with no apparent further loss of life. Many of the 761 passengers were asleep when the fire broke out in a dining car.

Waitresses and cooks held the flames under control for a while, but eventually had to flee for their lives, a railway spokesman said. In the middle of the tiinnel, the driver stopped the electric express to unhook the burning dining car and an adjacent coach, the eleventh and twelfth on the train—before trying to escape with the first 10 carriages. But the power failed after the train had travelled about 200 yards. Another express on the second fine was able to rescue about 100 persons, but for the rest it was a nightmarish stumble through the dark, smoke-filled tunnel.