Train crash in New Jersey kills at least 1, injures scores

Onlookers view a New Jersey Transit train that derailed and crashed through the station in Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. in this picture courtesy of David Richman taken September 29, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

At least one person was killed and about 100 were injured, some of them critically, when a New Jersey Transit train derailed and crashed through the station in Hoboken, New Jersey, during the morning rush hour on Thursday, officials said.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told MSNBC at least one person was killed and all victims from inside the station were removed in the morning. Initial reports provided to NBC News placed the number of fatalities at three.

Photos posted by commuters showed a train carriage that appeared to have smashed right through the station concourse, collapsing a section of the roof, scattering debris and wreckage and causing devastation.

ABC News said on its website that New Jersey Transit was reporting many passengers were trapped.

Hoboken is on the west bank of the Hudson River across from New York City. Its station, one of the busiest in the metropolitan area, is used by many commuters traveling into Manhattan from New Jersey and further out.

Linda Albelli, 62, said she was sitting in her seat in one of the rear cars when the train approached the station. She said she knew something was wrong just before the impact.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh my God, he's not slowing up, and this is where we're usually stop,'" Albelli said. "'We're going too fast,' and with that there was this tremendous crash."

Passengers helped each other off the train and onto the platform. They ultimately had to cross the tracks to get to safety, she said: "When we got on the platform there was nowhere to go. The ceiling had come down."

The injured sat on benches in the station while they waited for first responders, said Albelli, who lives in Closter, New Jersey. She did not know how many had been hurt.

"There was just so much, a lot of people in need of attention," she said. "There were a lot of people who were really hurt."

The train had about five or six carriages and was not full because many passengers exit at Secaucus, Albelli said.

The worst passenger train crash in recent years in the United States was the crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia in May 2015 that killed eight passengers and injured 186.