BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Tuesday restarted some trains on railway that saw the country's worst train accident in over a decade just a day earlier which killed at least 70 people.
Passenger train T196 made its way past the stretch nearZibo in the eastern province of Shandong where two trainsslammed into each other early on Monday, Xinhua news agencyreported.
China's worst train accident since 1997 came as thegovernment strives to make the country secure for the BeijingOlympics in August. Authorities have signalled that they do notwant people to linger on the accident.
Local railway officials have already been sacked and statemedia reported that a senior prosecutor had gone to the sceneto investigate possible dereliction of duty.
More than 1,200 paramilitary troops, police and officialshad also gathered to help the rescue and "maintain order", theTa Kung Pao, a mainland-run Hong Kong paper, reported.
On Monday, the country's main evening television newsreported on the disaster only well into the broadcast andshowed sparing shots of the crumpled train carriages andtwisted tracks.
Hundreds of injured passengers are in hospitals across thearea and, with about 70 in critical condition, the number ofdead could rise.
Zhang Lin, an athlete who was on the train from Beijing tothe Shandong coastal city Qingdao, said she was jolted awakeearly on Monday morning and thrown out of the carriage windowby the force of the crash, the China Daily reported.
The carriage came to rest inches from her feet.
"One more roll by the carriages could have crushed me," shetold the paper from hospital, where she is being treated forfractures and bruising. "From that moment on, I dare not closemy eyes."
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)