Amtrak train strikes backhoe, derails with 340-plus on board

[Breaking news update at 11:48 a.m. ET]

Two people died in an Amtrak train crash near Philadelphia on Sunday morning, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Ruth Miller said.

Amtrak said 31 people are being treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries.


[Previous story, published at 10 a.m. ET]

An Amtrak passenger train derailed Sunday morning south of Philadelphia while en route from New York to Savannah, Georgia, the company said in a statement.

The train struck a backhoe that was on the tracks, Amtrak said.

About 341 passengers and seven crew members were on board. Amtrak said some people were being treated for injuries but did not specify how many.

An investigation is underway, Amtrak said.

Investigators from the Federal Railroad Administration, an agency within the Department of Transportation, were on the scene.

Amtrak announced it suspended service between New York and Philadelphia.

The derailment came less than a month after an Amtrak train derailed in Kansas while headed from Chicago to Los Angeles, leaving 32 people injured.

Five of the train’s nine passenger cars came off the tracks in rural Grey County. Amtrak said it was working with BNSF Railway, the operator of the tracks where the derailment took place, to determine what caused the accident.

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