Amtrak said about 243 passengers and 12 crew were on board when it derailed en route to Chicago from Los Angeles.
Authorities say at least three people have been killed and others injured after a train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago collided with a dump truck and derailed in a remote area of the US state of Missouri.
It was not immediately clear how many people were injured other than the three killed, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said Monday night.
Justin Dunn, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, told reporters at a news conference: “There are multiple injuries and we can confirm three deaths – two on board. and one person in the truck.
Matt Daugherty, business development manager for Lifeflight Eagle, told The Kansas City Star that at least eight medical helicopters have responded from across the state. Daugherty said he was aware of several people injured and some in critical condition.
US passenger rail company Amtrak said in a statement that the train derailed at 12:42 pm local time (16:42 GMT).
It said the train was going east from Los Angeles to Chicago when it crashed.”a truck was obstructing public access near Mendon, Missouri,” about 160 kilometers (100 mi) northeast of Kansas City. About 243 passengers and 12 crew members were on board.
“Currently the local government is supporting customers. The company said our Incident Response Team has been activated and we are deploying emergency personnel to the scene to assist passengers, staff and their families.
Helicopter video broadcast by KMBC-TV in Kansas City from the scene showed wagons running towards them as emergency responders used ladders to climb onto one of them. The video also shows six medical helicopters parked nearby waiting to transport patients.
Hospital spokesman Eric Maze said three passengers were taken to University Hospital in Columbia. He has no information on their condition.
Superintendent Tim Beying told The Kansas City Star, passengers on the train included high school students from Pleasant Ridge High School in Easton, Kansas.
The Southwest delegation took about two days to get from Los Angeles to Chicago.
