PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An Amtrak train has abruptly overturned in Philadelphia, killing at least five people and injuring dozens of others.

Train 188, a Northeast Regional, had left Washington, D.C. and was headed to New York when it derailed shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday.  Amtrak says the train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew members.

More than 140 people went to hospitals to be evaluated or treated, and six were critically injured.

Mayor Michael Nutter, who confirmed the deaths, described the derailment as "an absolute disastrous mess." He says all seven train cars, including the engine, were in "various stages of disarray."

The accident has closed the nation's busiest rail corridor between New York and Washington as federal investigators begin sifting through the mangled remains to determine what went wrong.

(Story by: Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press)

 

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