An Amtrak passenger train has crashed in Philadelphia with dozens of injuries reported.

The busy 188 line service was traveling from Washington DC to New York City on Tuesday night when it went off the rails. The front of the train was going into a turn when it shook, according to passengers. There were early reports of around 50 people injured.

An Associated Press employee on the train said it appeared the train went off the tracks. Paul Cheung says he was fortunate to be at the back of the train and the front of it “looks pretty bad” and some passengers appeared badly hurt.

Former Congressman Patrick Murphy was on the train and said he was helping people. He tweeted photos of firefighters assisting passengers in the wreckage.

Police swarming around the crash site in Port Richmond told people to get back away from the train and give first responders room to work.

Roads all around the crash site were blocked off with waves of firefighters continuing towards the train cars, taking people out.

Several injured people, including one man complaining of neck pain, were rolled away on stretchers. Others wobbled while walking away. An elderly woman was given oxygen.

The cause of the crash was unknown. Amtrak said it was aware of the derailment and would provide updates later. The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday night it was gathering information about the derailment.

Another Amtrak train crashed on Sunday. That train, bound for New Orleans, struck a flatbed truck at a railway crossing in Amite, killing the truck’s driver and injuring two people on the train.

In March at least 55 people were injured when an Amtrak train collided with a tractor-trailer that was stuck on the tracks in North Carolina.

Port Richmond, the site of Tuesday’s crash, is one of five neighborhoods in what is known as Philadelphia’s River Wards, located off the Delaware river.
(The Guardian)