A construction crane falls onto a moving train in Thailand, killing at least 32 people

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand (AP) — A construction crane crashed onto a moving passenger train in northeastern Thailand on Wednesday, triggering a derailment that killed at least 32 people and injured dozens more.

The crash occurred in Nakhon Ratchasima, some 200 kilometers (135 miles) northeast of Bangkok, on a section of a planned high-speed rail project that is intended to eventually connect China with much of Southeast Asia.

The province's Public Health Provincial Office said there were 32 fatalities and 64 injured victims, including seven with severe injuries. There were still three passengers missing among the 171 believed to have been on board the train, it said in a statement issued as night fell.

Authorities said the crane was being used to build an elevated part of the railway when it fell as the train was traveling from the capital, Bangkok, to Ubon Ratchathani province. Thailand's Rail Transport Department said the crane was what is called a launching gantry crane, a self-supporting structure with vertical legs that usually runs on rails or wheels for mobility, allowing it to progress along with the construction project that it straddles. Such cranes are often used to help build elevated roads.

Images published in Thai media showed plumes of white, then dark, smoke rising from the crash site, with construction equipment dangling from girders between two concrete support pillars.

Rescue workers stood on top of overturned railway carriages, some of them with gaping holes torn on their sides, video from public broadcaster ThaiPBS showed. What appeared to be sections of the crane were scattered along the track.

Sixty-two year-old Samai Teechantuek, whose house is about 100 meters (yards) from the site of the accident, told The Associated Press of the horror of witnessing the accident, and hearing “the noises screeching, and then bam, bam, bam, all the way over there.”

“When the dust settled, I saw the top of the train carriage. I heard people shouting ‘save the children first!’” she said. "A conductor pulled people out. I saw them pulling many people out. People from the shop over there also ran out to help.”

“My legs were shaking. I was standing there shaking. I didn’t dare going any closer,” she said.

Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said he ordered an investigation.

In August 2024, a railway tunnel on the planned route, also in Nakhon Ratchasima, collapsed, killing three workers. Days of heavy rainfall were believed to have been a factor in the collapse.

The elevated segment that collapsed is a part of a Thai-Chinese high-speed railway project linking the capital to the northeastern province of Nong Khai, bordering Laos. The two-stage rail project has a total investment cost of more than 520 billion baht ($16.8 billion) and is associated with an ambitious plan to connect China with Southeast Asia under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. The section where the accident took place had a budget of more than 179 billion baht ($5.7 billion) and according to its original plans was expected to start operating in 2027.

Anan Phonimdaeng, acting governor of the State Railway of Thailand, said the project's contractor is Italian-Thai Development, with a Chinese company responsible for design and construction supervision. He said he ordered the contractor to suspend operations at the site until the investigation of the accident is completed.

Anan said authorities will examine the responsibilities of both parties, and the Railway Department plans to take legal action against the contractor as a first step. Damage to the train was estimated to be more than 100 million baht ($3.2 million), while construction equipment suffered limited damage, he said.

A statement posted on the company's website expressed condolences to the victims and said the company would take responsibility for paying compensation to the families of the dead and hospitalization expenses for the injured.

The main contractor for the route's first stage between Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima, Italian-Thai Development, was also the directly responsible for construction of the segment where Wednesday's accident occurred.

The rail accident sparked outrage because the company, also known as Italthai, was also the co-lead contractor for the State Audit Building in the Thai capital Bangkok, which collapsed during construction in March during a major earthquake.

About 100 people were killed in the collapse, which was the only major structure in Thailand to suffer such serious damage. Dozens of executives were indicted in connection with the disaster but none have yet been tried.

The involvement of Chinese companies in both projects has also drawn attention, as has Italthai's and Chinese companies' involvement in the construction of several expressway extensions in and around Bangkok where several accidents, some fatal, had occurred.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who was interior minister when the State Audit Building collapsed, said that the Comptroller General’s Department and Transport Ministry are responsible for blacklisting contractors, and the laws could not be amended in the brief time he was interior minister to expedite the matter.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the government was aware of the reports about the accident and had expressed condolences.

“The Chinese government attaches great importance to the safety of projects and personnel, and we are also learning about the situation,” she said. “At present, it appears that the relevant section is being constructed by a Thai company, and the cause of the accident is still under investigation.”

Wasamon reported from Bangkok.

The report has been corrected to identify Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning's gender as female.

A rescuer stands near the wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan.14, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit))

Rescuers try to lift the wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan.14, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit))

Rescuers work amid the wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan.14, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit))

A rescuer stands near the wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan.14, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit))

Rescuers try to lift the wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan.14, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit))

Rescuers work amidst the wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan.14, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit))

Rescuers work amidst the wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan.14, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit))

An aid workers at the scene after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Nathathida Adireksarn)

The wreckage after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Nathathida Adireksarn)

This photo released from Thailand's Ministry of Transport, shows a scene after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Ministry of Transport via AP)

This photo released from State Railway of Thailand, shows aid workers after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (State Railway of Thailand via AP)

This photo released from State Railway of Thailand, shows a scene after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (State Railway of Thailand via AP)

This photo released from State Railway of Thailand, shows a scene after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (State Railway of Thailand via AP)

This photo released from State Railway of Thailand, shows aid workers after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (State Railway of Thailand via AP)

This photo provided by State Railway of Thailand shows a scene after a construction crane fell into a passenger train in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (State Railway of Thailand via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

Early Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat online to Iran, writing: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.” Trump tallied the damage inflicted on Iran and its leaders and called it a “great honor” to be responsible for it.

The remarks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's attacks were creating conditions for the Iranian population to topple the government.

“It is in your hands,” Netanyahu said at a news conference, addressing the Iranian people. “We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime.”

Since the start of the war, U.S. and Israeli strikes have targeted security checkpoints in Iran to undermine the government’s ability to suppress dissent, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the U.S-based independent monitoring group known as ACLED.

Intense airstrikes hit early Friday around Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.

Netanyahu denounced Khamenei as a “puppet of the Revolutionary Guards."

Khamenei is close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and is widely seen as even less compromising than his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei said in a statement read by a state TV news anchor that he was keeping a “file of revenge.” He did not appear on camera and has not been seen since his father and wife were killed in the war’s opening salvo, which also wounded him, according to an Iranian ambassador.

The war continued to escalate on its 13th day as oil prices spiraled up again to $100 per barrel, and stocks sank worldwide over fears that the conflict could drag on longer than hoped.

To relieve the surge in prices, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was further easing sanctions on Russian oil by granting a license that authorizes the delivery and sale of some Russian crude oil and petroleum products for the next month.

Trump signaled earlier this week that he would take more action to address the squeeze on oil flows. The move follows the administration’s decision to grant temporary permission for India to buy Russian oil.

The new exemption applies only to Russian oil already at sea. Last week, analysts estimated there were about 125 million barrels loaded on tankers. To put that in perspective, about 20 million barrels of oil per day usually pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Energy Agency.

Iran has made clear it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure across the region and use the effective closure of the strait as leverage against the United States and Israel. A fifth of the world’s traded oil flows through the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean.

At a news conference Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to Tunisia, Mir Masoud Hosseinian, said Iranian naval forces “have established full control” over the strait and “carried out precise strikes in response to attacks on our oil infrastructure.”

“Global energy security is contingent on respect for Iran’s sovereignty,” he said.

The pinch was being felt worldwide. South Korea reinstated government-set caps on oil prices for the first time in three decades as it sought to calm soaring fuel costs. The two-week caps, which took effect Friday, set maximum prices for petroleum products supplied by refiners to gas stations and other businesses.

Hosseinian told The Associated Press the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack on his family’s home, but “it is not serious.” The hope is he will attend the massive, state-organized Eid prayer next week that his father traditionally led. However, Khamenei remains a target for the Israelis, who have vowed to kill him.

Hosseinian said Iran’s strikes on Gulf nations have been strategic. “Even when we targeted hotels, we had precise information that they were hosting American and Israeli soldiers,” he said.

Khamenei called on Gulf Arabs to “shut down” U.S. bases in the region, saying protection promised by Washington was “nothing more than a lie.”

He also said Iran has studied “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable” if the war continues. He did not elaborate, but Iran has been linked to previous attacks on U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.

Attacks on Gulf states continued Friday with Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry saying its air defenses downed more than three dozen drones headed toward the kingdom’s Eastern Province over the span of a few hours, marking an unusually large barrage.

Trump said in a social media post Thursday that ensuring Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon was a higher priority than soaring oil prices.

Hours later, Netanyahu announced Israeli attacks had killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist and hit others but gave few details.

Israel said earlier it struck a nuclear facility in Iran in recent days that it had destroyed with an airstrike in October 2024. Earlier this year, satellite photos raised concerns that Iran was working to restore the facility.

The U.S. military said American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Irbil in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. France earlier said six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Irbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic State militants.

In the same region, British officials said several U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries Wednesday when drone strikes hit a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.

And on Thursday in western Iraq, rescue efforts were underway after an American military refueling plane went down. U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely, and that the cause was not related to friendly or hostile fire.

Israeli warplanes pummeled Lebanon, targeting even the busy heart of Beirut, in response to missiles from Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters launched into Israel. One strike hit in a neighborhood that is close to Lebanon’s parliament, United Nations offices and international embassies.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said forces were targeting a “facility affiliated with Hezbollah.”

An Israeli strike hit in the vicinity of Lebanon’s only public university, killing a professor and the director of the science faculty at the campus in Hadath, on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israeli strikes also killed 15 other people, including five children, in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. An AP photographer saw several buildings flattened in one village where rescue workers searched through the rubble.

Ben Mbarek reported from Tunis, Tunisia. El Deeb reported from Beirut. Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers from around the world contributed to this report.

Israeli authorities inspect homes damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel, central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Residents watch as smoke rises from a nearby building during an Israeli strike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A woman gathers belongings from her family's home after it was damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel, central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

People inspect homes damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Workers inspect damage caused by a drone strike overnight at the Address Creek Harbour hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

An oil tanker burns after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at Khor al-Zubair port near Basra, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo)

A woman sits on rubble across from a residential building damaged last Monday during the U.S.-Israeli air campaign in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israeli authorities inspect homes damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israel Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon speaks during a meeting of the Security Council at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A family enjoys the sunset with the view of the city skyline and Burj Khalifa, at Dubai Creek Harbour in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Smoke rises after an explosion at the airport in Irbil, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A man inspects a car damaged in an Israeli airstrike at the Ramlet al-Baida public beach in Beirut, Lebanon, early Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)