Two dead after Amtrak train smashes into backhoe on tracks near Philadelphia

A locomotive on an Amtrak train carrying about 330 passengers derailed when it hit a backhoe south of Philadelphia on Sunday, killing two people and injuring about 35 in what passengers described as a jolt followed by a fireball.

The accident in Chester, Pennsylvania, about 25km southwest of Philadelphia, was the latest in a series involving the US passenger rail carrier and occurred a few kilometres south of the site of a 2015 derailment in which eight people were killed.

Amtrak Train 89 bound for Savannah, Georgia, from New York struck a vehicle on the tracks, Chester Fire Commissioner Travis Thomas said. Amtrak said the vehicle was a backhoe.

The two people killed were Amtrak employees, officials said.

Thomas said 35 people on board the train were taken to hospitals and none of the injuries were life-threatening. About half of the injured had been released from hospitals as of Sunday afternoon, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“We are still gathering the facts,” National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ryan Frigo told a news conference.

Frigo said there were seven crew members on board the train, adding the locomotive engineer was hospitalised.