A crowded commuter train derailed and plowed into an apartment building in western Japan on Monday, turning passenger cars into twisted clumps of metal. At least 43 people were killed and over 300 injured, officials said.
The seven-car commuter train was carrying 580 passengers when it jumped the tracks, wrecking an automobile in its path before slamming into a nine-story apartment complex just yards away. Two of the four derailed cars were flattened against the wall of the building, and hundreds of rescue workers and police swarmed the wreckage and tended to the injured.
The cause of the crash in an urban area near Amagasaki, about 250 miles west of the capital Tokyo, was not immediately known, but survivors said excessive speed may have been a factor.
