The Chinese government is being criticized for trying to cover up the deadly train accident in Zhejiang province in the east of the country without a full investigation. The disaster left 43 people dead and 210 injured.

Immediately after the incident, eight mechanical diggers were dispatched to dig trenches to bury train carriages.

A video showing at least two bodies falling out of the carriages later appeared online.

The first body appears to fall from a carriage 18 meters off the ground. As a scream is heard in the background, the second body falls out of a train window as a mechanical digger rolls a carriage into a ditch.

This video was viewed more than 1.2 million times in less than a day, triggering criticism of the Chinese government’s careless approach.

According to an online poll of more than 44,000 people, 97 percent were unhappy with the government’s response to the disaster. With only a few hundred supporting the Communist party, 93 percent said the party’s management was “extremely poor, showing a total disregard for human life.”

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has instructed the media not to report on the accident in depth.

“Do not investigate the cause of the accident. On television, provide the relevant information, but be careful of the music used,” the instructions said.

Although two senior rail officials and the head of the Shanghai railway bureau were fired, a spokesman for China’s Railways ministry, Wang Yongping, reaffirmed China’s “confidence” in its rail network at a press conference.

However, a popular comment shared online said, “When a country is corrupt to the point that a single lightning strike can cause a train crash ... none of us is exempt. China today is a train travelling through a lighting storm. We are not spectators; all of us are passengers.”

By Jung Eun-jung
(kristin2j@gmail.com)
Intern reporter