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NEW YORK, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were injured on Saturday night when a commuter train running on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the U.S. state of New York derailed.
The accident occurred after 9 p.m. near New Hyde Park on Long Island of New York, some 30 kilometers east of New York City, according to local media reports.
Multiple people were believed to have been injured, while an LIRR spokesperson told the media that there were at least four injuries.
LIRR service has been in suspension in both directions on several of its branches due to the incident.
The cause of the accident remains unclear, with some media reports saying that the derailed train had struck a work train on the tracks.
The first three of the train's 12 cars derailed, and firefighters were still working to evacuate passengers from the train by 10 p.m., the reports added.
Launched in 1834, the LIRR is a commuter rail system stretching from New York City to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average weekday ridership of nearly 340,000 passengers in 2014, it is believed to be the busiest commuter railroad in North America.
The Saturday derailment came on the heels of another major train accident on Sept. 29, when a New Jersey Transit commuter train crashed into the Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey. One person died and 114 others were injured in that incident, the cause of which is still under investigation.
