Monday, April 25 2005 10:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tokyo: At least 37 people were killed and over 220 others injured today (Apr 25, 2005) in western Japan when a morning commuter train derailed, sending one carriage hurtling into an apartment block in the nation's deadliest rail accident in 14 years.

The crash was initially attributed to the train hitting a car but authorities later backtracked and said the train's 23-year-old driver may have been speeding or failed to negotiate a corner.

The train was carrying some 580 passengers during the morning rush hour when three of its seven carriages were thrown from the tracks. One smashed into the side of an apartment building and another carriage lay tilted beside it.

Thirty-seven people were killed and 222 people injured, said a spokesman for the fire department in Amagasaki, a city near Osaka and Kobe some 400 kilometres west of Tokyo.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene to try to cut apart the wreckage to free trapped survivors. Hyogo authorities also asked Tokyo to send in the military to help with the rescue operations.

"I could hear voices of people in the carriage that hit the building," said an employee of national broadcaster Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) who was in the third car of the train.

It was not immediately clear how many of the dead were passengers or bystanders.