Train wreck in eastern China due to human error: Chinese media
A collision between two trains in eastern China on Monday that left at least 70 people dead and injured more than 420 is being blamed on human error, Chinese state media say. A high-speed passenger train jumped the tracks and slammed into another train early Monday. (Associated Press)
Xinhua News Agency reported on its website that the crash, China's worst train accident in a decade, took place before dawn near the city of Zibo in Shandong province.
The agency said at least 70 of the injured were in serious condition, including the coach of China's national sailing team.
Xinhua said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash.
The agency's English-language report blamed the accident on human error, while its Chinese website attributed the crash to negligence, without giving other details. But two railway officials were fired and face an investigation by the Ministry of Railways.
Witnesses said a train travelling from Beijing to the coastal city of Qingdao, host of the sailing competition during the Olympics in August, derailed and hit a second train at about 4:40 a.m. local time, according to Xinhua.
News photos showed the derailed train at the bottom of a ditch, with rescuers removing passengers from a carriage on its side. Rescuers remove a victim from a carriage after two passenger trains collided in east China's Shandong province Monday. (Associated Press)
Survivors with white sheets wrapped around their shoulders stood or sat near the wreckage.
The second train did not overturn in the ditch, but a news photo showed one of its carriages resting perpendicular to the track.
In January, 18 people died when a train hurtling through the night at more than 120 km/h slammed into a group of about 100 workers carrying out track maintenance near the city of Anqiu in Shandong province.
Monday's collision was the worst train accident in China since 1997 when a collision killed 126 people, according to the 163.com news website.
With files from the Associated Press
Location of Shandong within China.
Two trains collided in Shandong, China 4:41am local time on Monday killing at least 71 people and injuring over 400, including four French citizens. It is still not known exactly how many people were on either of the trains.

The collision occurred in Zibo when one of the trains traveling from Beijing to Qingdao jumped tracks and collided head on with a train traveling in the opposite direction from Yantai to Xuzhou. Both of the trains are reported to have been traveling at their maximum speeds when they collided.

"It toppled 90 degrees to one side and then all the way to the other side. When it finally went off the tracks, many people fell on me and hot water poured out of their thermos flasks," said Zhang, a passenger, to Xinhua.
 
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but reports say that the tracks were broken under the train traveling from Beijing. The tracks are said to have been built in 1897.

Jinan Railway Bureau officials Chen Gong and  Chai Tiemin  have been fired after the accident.  The two top officials who were the former director and former Communist Party chief, respectively, will face an investigation by the Ministry of Railways. 

Four Frenchmen were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities named them as Pascal Boisson, 54, his son Pierre Emmanuel Boisson, 14, his daughter Joanne Boisson, 22, and his girlfriend Robin Naurence, 42. No foreigners were killed in the accident, officials said.