5 killed, 65 injured as train derails, rolls onto side in Philadelphia

At least five people have been killed and 65 injured as a train, carrying more than 238 passengers and five crew members, derailed and rolled onto its side in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, U.S. officials said.

All the seven carriages of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 went off the tracks near the 2000 block of Wheatsheaf Lane shortly after 9 p.m on Tuesday while the train was heading to New York City from Washington D.C.

Passengers said that the front of the train was negotiating a turn when the train started to shake. A local resident, who lived close to the tracks, said that for a few seconds, it sounded like a number of shopping carts ramming into each other and then it was followed by screams and chaos.

Mayor Michael Nutter said that the train crash was "an absolute disastrous mess," adding that he had never seen "something so devastating" in his life. He said that the incident was a "Level 3 mass casualty event."

Emergency officials and fire-fighters are engaged in a rescue operation to find passengers trapped inside the wreck.

The cause of the crash is not known yet.

Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board has sent a team of investigators to the crash site.