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Death toll from train collision rises to 71
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One more body has been recovered from the wreckage of Monday's fatal train crash in eastern China, bringing the known death toll to 71, said officials handling the aftermath.

The identities of 63 of those killed have been confirmed, and the body of one victim was cremated with the family's agreement, officials said, without elaborating.

Fifty-three of the 416 injured had been discharged by Wednesday evening, officials said.

When the locomotive of T195, one of the two trains involved, was being lifted from the scene by a crane, a body fell off. "It was a man," said a spokesman for Zichuan District who declined to be identified.

He said he suspected the victim, the last to be pulled out, had been the train driver. But the result would be known only after DNA testing, according to railway authorities.

T195, a high-speed train from Beijing to the coastal city of Qingdao, derailed and crashed into another train in Zibo's Zhoucun District at 4:40 AM on Monday.

At least 12 cars from the two trains derailed in the accident and 71 people were confirmed dead.

Of the 416 people injured, 62 others were transferred to hospitals elsewhere for treatment while 301, including 50 critically injured, remained hospitalized in Zibo City.

All the patients received treatment for free and accommodation services for family members of those killed during their stay in Zibo were paid by the local government, said Liang Minglai, president of Zibo Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.

A team of medical specialists from Beijing also joined in the rescue work. More than 300 citizens of Zibo had donated blood of more than 30,000 milliliters by Tuesday, according to local authorities.

A preliminary investigation suggested the train from Beijing was running at 131 kilometers per hour at the time of the accident, while the speed limit of that section was 80 kph. It happened just three days before the May Day holiday, when millions of Chinese holiday makers will travel by train.

(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2008)

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