One locomotive engineer has been dead, with eight passengers injured, in a South Korea train derailment accident early Friday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported citing police and rescue workers.

The Mugunghwa train derailed at about 3:41 a.m. Friday (1841GMT Thursday) near a station in the southern port city of Yeosu in South Jeolla province.

Aboard the derailed train were 22 passengers, two locomotive engineers and three crew members. Among the 27 people, one engineer was dead and eight others were wounded.

Six injured passengers have returned home after medical treatment, but one engineer and one passenger have still been hospitalized.

The incident was estimated to have happened as the engineers failed to slow down speed at a curved railroad. The train traveled at a speed of 127 km per hour when it derailed, violating the regulation of running at a speed below 50 km per hour.

The train was composed of nine cars, including seven passenger coaches. Among them, five cars derailed and three cars were overturned.

The rail authority Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) dispatched about 200 personnel and equipments to the site to restore operations, while suspending all railway services near the site. The operations are expected to be resumed later at night.

Source: XINHUA