Panisa AemochaBCO, Swapon, Nano.
Residents of Thailand’s Ban Thanon Khot are accustomed to the rumble of trains. Railways are the main means of transport connecting remote villages with major cities.
But on Wednesday, the usual rhythm ended in tragedy.
“The noise was unusually loud. There was a loud, crashing sound,” said Pitchaya Promenade, a school volunteer. “I saw the blue crane sliding. It seemed to stop for a moment and then suddenly flipped over.”
A construction crane collapsed onto a moving train, killing at least 32 people and injuring 66 others. Most of them were students and office workers traveling to school and work. Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health said three people were still missing in the accident.
When the BBC arrived at the scene in the evening, rescue workers were still removing bodies from the wrecked train. Some were completely broken.
“The visual representation of the damage was like a spoon scooping out a piece of cake,” said Pichaya, 32, who had basic first aid training and was able to tend to some of the injured.
“There was an old lady hanging upside down (from the carriage)…and another woman holding her with what appeared to be a broken right arm.”
The collision caused one of the train’s carriages to catch fire, further complicating the rescue operation. Emergency crews used a crane and hydraulic cutting tools to free passengers trapped in the wreckage.
“People were shouting, ‘Help! Help!’ and smoke started rising.” said Penporn Pumjantuek, a restaurant owner who works about 100 meters (328 feet) from the site. “Oil was pouring everywhere from the train.”
She recalls being “torn between fear and courage.”
“I still get scared when I think about it,” she told BBC Thai. “I still remember the moment I ran to help them when no one was there yet. They were crying. It was really scary.”
The injured included a 1-year-old child and an 85-year-old man, and seven were in critical condition, authorities said Wednesday.
Local resident Supann Imchantrik was among those who helped the one-year-old child. “The child was still breathing, but barely,” said the 52-year-old.
“I saw dead people… lying there. There were injured people. Everything was right there. It was a heartbreaking sight.”
The crane involved in the accident was used to build an elevated railway, part of a US$5.4 billion (£4 billion) Chinese-backed project linking Bangkok with southwestern China via Laos.
Many questions remain unanswered.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul called for an investigation, and Thailand’s National Railway said it had filed a complaint against the Italian-Thai development company responsible for the section of railway where the incident occurred.
This is the same company responsible for building the Bangkok skyscraper that collapsed when other buildings in the city collapsed in an earthquake last March.
Amon Pimanmas, an engineering professor at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University, believes human factors are more likely to be responsible for Wednesday’s tragedy than natural factors.
Given that there were no storms, no flooding, and no significant vibrations passing under the train, “natural causes can be almost completely ruled out as the cause of the accident,” Amorn said.
Thailand is no stranger to fatal construction accidents, partly due to weak enforcement of safety standards and regulations.
In 2023, a freight train collided with a pickup truck crossing the eastern railroad tracks, killing eight people and injuring four others.
Meanwhile, over the past seven years, road improvement projects from Bangkok to the south have resulted in numerous accidents, killing about 150 people.
Additional reporting by Kelly Ng from Singapore
