The Dazhou-Chengdu railway reopened at 6:30 PM on Sunday after a train was derailed by a rock fall in southwest China's Sichuan Province earlier the same day.

The accident happened at around 2:40 AM on Sunday at Jintang County, more than 80 km northeast of Chengdu, the provincial capital. The train's locomotive and 10 freight cars derailed, said a Chengdu railway administration official.

One railway worker was killed and a freight train driver was seriously injured. The train driver is in a critical condition in hospital, said an official with the Chengdu railway administration.

The official said continuous rains had caused the rock fall.

"We have no idea if the rock fall is related with the earthquake in Sichuan in May or its aftershocks," he said.

The accident led to the closure of the 386-kilometer section between Dazhou, in northeast Sichuan, and Chengdu.

The Chengdu railway administration sent 1,500 rescue workers to clear the site and repair the deformed rails at 3:30 AM, 50 minutes after the accident, said Song Hongjun, general manager of the Dazhou-Chengdu Railway Co. Ltd.

The service of 11 passenger trains linking Chengdu, respectively, with Chongqing, Nanchong, Dazhou and Wanzhou were suspended, and trains to Beijing via Chengdu were asked to use the Chengdu-Chongqing railway line, according to the Chengdu Railway Station.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2008)