Indonesia train crash toll rises to 14 as rescuers work to remove trapped passengers

JAKARTA, April 28 (Reuters) – The death toll from a train collision near the Indonesian capital Jakarta has risen to 14 with another 84 injured, the train operator said on Tuesday, as rescuers worked to extract survivors still trapped in the wreckage.

The collision between a commuter train and a long-distance train happened late on Monday in Bekasi, just outside Jakarta.

Mohammad Syafii, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, told a press conference early on Tuesday that it was a delicate process to rescue survivors from the mangled carriages.

“We needed to involve personnel with certain skills to perform a measured extrication,” he said. “There are some victims who are alive to this minute and we’re hoping to extricate them, but they’re still pinned by the train material.”

Rescuers have disengaged the trains, a Reuters witness said. They were seen using angle grinders to cut through the metal of the train compartments and reach the survivors.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto, Willy Kurniawan, and Tri Iswanto; Editing by John Mair and David Stanway)