Multiple deaths, injuries after Amtrak train derails in Montana

At least three people have died and some passengers were injured after five cars of an Amtrak train went off the rails in north-central Montana, an official at a local sheriff's office said.

The Empire Builder train derailed at 4 pm local (2200 GMT) near Joplin, a town of about 200, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said in a statement on Saturday.

The accident scene is about 241 kilometres (150 miles) north of Helena and about 48 kilometres (30 miles) from the border with Canada.

The train had about 147 passengers and 13 crew members onboard, Abrams said. 

It was headed for Seattle from Chicago, media said. 

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'Extreme turbulence'

Megan Vandervest, a passenger on the train who was going to visit a friend in Seattle, told The New York Times that she was awakened by the derailment.

“My first thought was that we were derailing because, to be honest, I have anxiety and I had heard stories about trains derailing,” said Vandervest, who is from Minneapolis. “My second thought was that’s crazy. We wouldn’t be derailing. Like, that doesn’t happen.”

She told the Times that the car behind hers was tilted over, the one behind that was entirely tipped over, and the three cars behind that “had completely fallen off the tracks and were detached from the train.”

Speaking from the Liberty County Senior Center, where passengers were being taken, Vandervest said it felt like “extreme turbulence on a plane.”

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Evacuating passengers

Montana's Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator told the New York Times that more than one person had been killed and "well over 50 people had been injured".

Amtrak was working with the local authorities to transport injured passengers and safely evacuate all other passengers, Abrams added.

Photos posted to social media showed several cars on their sides. Passengers were standing alongside the tracks, some carrying luggage.

The images showed sunny skies, and it appeared the accident occurred along a straight section of tracks.

The cause of the incident was not immediately clear.

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