The collision between a commuter train and a long-distance train happened late on Monday in Bekasi, just outside Jakarta.
Bobby Rasyidi, chief executive of Indonesia’s state railway firm PT KAI, said the death toll had risen to 14 and that evacuation work was still ongoing.
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.
Bobby told the press conference that the commuter train first collided with a taxi on the tracks and was then hit by the long-distance train. A women-only carriage bore the brunt of the crash.
Taxi operator Green SM Indonesia said on Instagram that the taxi involved in the accident was part of its fleet. It said it had sent information to authorities to assist in the investigation.
Green SM Indonesia is the Indonesian branch of Vietnamese electric-vehicle taxi operator Green and Smart Mobility JSC, an affiliate of Vingroup.
MNA
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