Dawn showed the extent of the devastation from the Tuesday disaster with all seven cars of the Amtrak train askew, off the rails in a chaotic wreck. One car was seemingly collapsed like an accordion and three cars were overturned. The other three were a twisted mess.
Hundreds of rescue workers using heavy equipment were at the scene, searching for survivors.
“It is an absolute disastrous mess,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter told reporters. “I have never seen anything like this in my life.”
The train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew when it left Washington for New York Tuesday.
A sixth person died overnight from chest injuries, Temple University Hospital's Dr. Herbert Cushing told reporters at a televised briefing Wednesday morning. As of the afternoon of May 13, the death toll was raised to seven.
At least 200 people were sent to hospitals and several were listed in critical condition, authorities said. Most of the injured had suffered fractures.
The NTSB will investigate the cause of the crash, which took place where the tracks curve in the city's Port Richmond section.
The crash disrupted service along the Northeast Corridor, which links Washington to Boston. Trains will run between Washington and Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and New York and Boston.
Most people got out of the train on their own, but rescuers are still searching for others, officials said.
"We do not know what happened here. We do not know why this happened," Nutter said.
The track curves in the area the train derailed, but "we have no idea what kind of speed we are talking about or what else occurred out there," Nutter said.
At a news conference around 1 a.m., Nutter said he could not confirm whether all people aboard the train had been accounted for.
“The front of the train is really mangled,” the Associated Press' Paul Cheung, who was on the train, told his employer. “It's a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal.”
Cheung told the AP that the train had “started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake.
“Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake,” he said. “You could see people's stuff flying over me.”
Cheung said he escaped from the back of his car. Some cars were tipped on their sides, and passengers tried to exit through the windows, he said.
Gov. Tom Wolf was on the scene around 1 a.m., but said he had yet to tour the area.
"Anything the state can do to help, we stand ready to do that," Wolf said.
Susman reported from Philadelphia and Muskal from Los Angeles. Staff writers Ryan Parker and Lauren Raab contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
©2015 the Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
