A train collision on the outskirts of Jakarta has left 14 people dead and 84 injured, Indonesian authorities said on Tuesday after rescuers finished extracting survivors from the wreckage.
The accident occurred late Monday in Bekasi when a commuter train struck a taxi that had ended up on the tracks and was then hit by a long-distance service, according to PT KAI chief executive Bobby Rasyidin.
Rescue teams completed a careful, hours-long operation to free passengers trapped inside heavily damaged carriages. Mohammad Syafii, head of the national search and rescue agency, said specialists with the right equipment and skills were brought in to cut passengers free from twisted metal. He added that no more people remained inside the trains but teams would continue to scour the site for remains.
A women-only carriage suffered the most severe damage. Officials said all 14 fatalities were women and that many victims had been pinned by crushed metal; rescuers used angle grinders and other cutting tools before separating carriages to reach survivors.
Green SM Indonesia, the local unit of Vietnamese electric taxi operator Green and Smart Mobility JSC (part of Vingroup), said on Instagram that the taxi involved belonged to its fleet and that it had supplied information to investigators.
President Prabowo Subianto visited a Bekasi hospital, ordered an official inquiry and pledged to build a flyover to ease traffic near the tracks. He also criticized parts of the rail network as poorly maintained. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has opened an investigation into the collision.
Scenes at the station on Tuesday showed relatives and rescue workers searching through debris for loved ones. A commuter, Heriyati, said she had planned to ride the women-only carriage but chose the next carriage at the last minute; she was on the phone with her husband when the impact occurred.
Commuter services are among the busiest in Jakarta, the world’s most populous city, and PT KAI said several commuter routes were shortened while operations were adjusted after the crash. Land transport accidents are frequent in Indonesia — a 2024 collision in West Java killed four people and injured dozens.
