After Hong Kong fire, train hits railway workers in China, killing 11

Hours after a fire engulfed a high-rise residential building in Hong Kong, killing over 40 people, another mishap has befallen China, with a train running over railway workers, leaving 11 dead.

The train “used for seismic equipment testing” collided with construction workers at Kunming’s Luoyang Town station in the early morning, killing 11 and injuring two, the Kunming Railway Bureau said in a statement.

The train was “passing normally through a curve inside Kunming Luoyang Town Station when a collision happened with construction workers who had entered the track area”, it said.

Hong Kong fire

The fire began on Wednesday afternoon in an eight-building complex that has around 2,000 apartments. These blazes first took hold of bamboo scaffolding on several apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court, Hong Kong’s northern district of Tai Po.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that at least 900 people had been relocated from the area to safer locations.

An AFP reporter heard loud cracking sounds on Wednesday at the scene of the fire, possibly from the burning bamboo. They also saw thick plumes of smoke billowing from the buildings as flames and ash reached high into the sky.

The temperature at the scene is very high and there are some floors where fire service personnel have been unable to reach people who requested help, but they will keep trying, said Derek Armstrong Chan, the deputy director of fire service operations.

With the death toll rising to 44, the Wang Fuk Court fire became the deadliest in more than 60 years in Hong Kong, according to multiple reports.

A fire on August 2, 1962, in the Sham Shui Po neighbourhood of Kowloon, also killed 44 people.

Earlier, a fire at the Wing On Company warehouse killed 176 people on September 22, 1948.

Three men arrested

Eileen Chung, a senior superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Force, said police are looking at a construction company that was carrying out maintenance work on the building.

“We have reason to believe that those in charge at the company were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” she said.

Chung said police have arrested three men in Tai Po, Ngau Tau Kok, and San Po Kong districts at around 2 a.m.

With inputs from agencies