Beijing, China (CNN) Taiwan authorities are investigating what caused a train carrying 366 passengers to derail Sunday in Yilan County, northeastern Taiwan, killing at least 18 people and injuring 178.
The train was traveling between the cities of Shulin and Taitung when it left the tracks on a coastal line popular with tourists just before 5 p.m. local time, according to the transport ministry.
Investigators in Taiwan are examining the cause of the crash.
All eight train carriages derailed in the incident, with five of those overturning.
Among the dead are eight people from the same family who were traveling back from a wedding in New Taipei city, according to CNN affiliate in Taiwan SET TV.
The cause of the derailment is still under investigation, but at a news conference Monday transport ministry officials said they were looking into speed as a possible factor, as well as a report filed by the driver 20 minutes before the incident that said the air pressure in the train's brakes was "too low."
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At around 4:50 p.m. local time (0850 UTC) on Sunday, at least eighteen passengers were killed and, by varying reports, more than another 170 injured after a train derailed in  in northeast Taiwan. It was the most deaths in a train crash in Taiwan in 27 years. The  was transporting 366 people when the accident occurred, according to the railways administration. On Sunday authorities said an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the incident.
Evacuation through a window at 18:16.
Photo of the train wreck at 18:21. 

Traveling between  and , the train's eight carriages derailed around Xinma station.

According to Associated Press, locals assisted passengers to escape through the windows of the train before the emergency response team arrived. Emergency workers and roughly 120 soldiers worked to free survivors from the wreckage.

Injured passengers were transported to four different hospitals for treatment, ''The New York Times'' reported.

The train's conductor, according to , reported some sort of object was on the tracks and might have derailed the train. Transport ministry officials said on Monday the train driver had reported abnormally low pressure in the brakes of the train 20 minutes before the crash.

This incident exceeded the fatality count of seventeen in a train derailing at ,  in 2003. Previously 30 passengers died and 112 were injured as a result of a train collision in  in 1991.



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