Train Derails Near Durban, South Africa

The KwaZulu-Natal emergency medical rescue service said it had already transported numerous patients to hospital and was still transporting more.

"I just fell down, I don't know what happened," passenger Josephine Disane said while waiting for paramedics to remove her from the scene. The woman, who was on her way to work in Durban's suburb of Chatsworth, said there was a lot of screaming. She suffered back and leg pains.

It was not immediately clear how severely the train services to Durban's southern stations would be disrupted. An investigation was under way and engineering crews were working to free the lines.

It was expected that two of the lines would be operating by late Saturday afternoon. Until then, there would be a shuttle service between the Reunion and Montclair stations.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Durban firefighter and an eThekwini metro police officer said rescue workers were confronted by a hostile crowd when they arrived on the scene. There was also an unconfirmed report of stone-throwing.

It is believed one of the carriages derailed from the railway line causing the overhead cables to collapse.