The derailment of the eight-car Taroko Express train in Taiwan.

The train, cruising in and out of mountain tunnels along Taiwan’s east coast, was packed with people rushing to see family and friends on the first day of a long holiday weekend. It was jolted by a heavy crash, flew off the rails and slammed into the walls of a tunnel ,according to the news published.

The derailment of the eight-car Taroko Express train on Friday morning was the worst such disaster in Taiwan in four decades, killing at least 50 people, including two train drivers, and injuring around 150 others, a 6-year-old girl was among those killed.

Investigators are still trying to determine why the train crashed as it was traveling from near Taipei to the eastern coastal city of Taitung. But initial reports indicated that it had either collided with a construction vehicle that rolled down a slope onto the track, or was hit by the falling truck just as it passed.Workers had rescued all survivors known to have been trapped in the wreckage and had brought in excavators to try to pull out several train cars deep inside the tunnel.One worker using an electric circular saw to cut through one of the twisted carriages.

One of the passenger part of the accident admitted that the last thing he remembered before passing out was a loud crash. When he regained consciousness, the train was shrouded in darkness and he and several passengers used the light from their cellphones to see. They tried to help the other injured survivors but it took them an hour to find their way out of the train

The crash occurred around 9:30 a.m in a tunnel just north of the city of Hualien near Qingshui Cliff, a destination popular among tourists who flock to see towering mountains and crystal-blue waters. Friday was the annual Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, a time when Taiwanese often travel. A railway official conveyed that that the train had 374 seats and was near capacity.The death toll makes the train crash one of the worst disasters that Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has faced since she took office in 2016. Within hours of the crash government had fully mobilized rescue services, vowed to conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the collision Ms. Tsai in addressing the public.