back. >> i'm with you on this. john shane with the criminal college of justice. tweet me. let me know what you think the rite balance is. breaking news anam track train de rails in new york. multiple injuries reported, we'll have the latest. destruction and despair, another powerful earthquake rocks nepal, dozens are killed thousands injured and a u.s. military helicopter is missing no criminal charges. protesters take to the streets

of madison wisconsin after a white police officer is killed in the death of an unarmed bi-racial man. fight for life. an american doctor's battle for ebola, and his shocking discovery after he thought he was secured. >> the outside of my eye is negative. my tears negative. inside it was teaming with virus. his recovery and challenges he faces every day i'm antonio mora we begin with the breaking news out of philadelphia, where an amtrak passenger train derailed. several cars from the north-east regional train number 188 heading from washington to new york appeared to have left the tracks. it happened in the nearby side of philadelphia. at this time we do not know how many were injured, or if there were fatalities. john terrett is here with more. people have been transported to

area hospitals and there are injuries. authorities were telling us 240 were on board. 50 were hurt and taken to the nearest hospital, the aria health hospital in frankfurt, the area of philadelphia where the crash happened. frankfort. it's train 188 a regional. the north-east regional. not the acceler. >> that's a high speed train. >> it's sort of a high speed. >> the regional stops for often. >> that's the aceller. this is the regional. it left washington d.c. at 10 past seven due to ask in pennsylvania in new york at 10:34. according to authorities between eight and 10 cars derail.

there are reports that the train may have hit another train. we haven't been able to stand that up. >> there's no confirmation. there are reports that the front of the train sustained more damage than the back of the train. that would be the business car section. it's always the second car in the carriages. and those two, we are told the carriages, took the brunt of the impact this evening. they are metro liner caring bought by amtrak and are very strong and tough. in past accidents, the metro liners come off better than the lorries and other trains that are impacted. in this case it's a very very busy stretch of railroad if not the busiest in the country, ferrying people from the capital to new york city there are carriages on the line.

amtrak has been saying for years, for years and years that they need extra money to upgrade the line. at this point on the line, it is owned by amtrak. now, we are hearing that the safety board is getting involved and will be looking, among other things for signs of track damage, or some kind of damage or incident involving the train engine itself. >> someone that reported on the national transportation board is lisa stark of al jazeera, and joins us on the phone. what have you heard from your sources in the federal government. >> well, not surprisingly the national transportation safety board, i'm told, will send a go team - that's what they call the investigators. they'll launch to the site they'll take the lead unless there's a reason to believe there was foul play. if not, they'll take the lead.

the federal railroad administration is dispatching its team of investigators as well. they will as john indicated. this track, where the train came off the track is owned by amtrak. they sometimes run an track owned by the railroad. this is amtrak rail. they suspect it every day regularly. they'll look at the track, what the speed of the train was, the - was there a problem with the loko motif, was there something on the track did the train run into anything. we don't have the details. i talked to a source, and they don't have the details. it's early on the key issue is getting to the people that may be trapped in the train. obviously you see from the pictures it's very dark, they are working in tough conditions in that regard, that is really the key now, not figuring out what went wrong, but figuring out if there's people in there

that they need to get out of the trains. >> as of half hour ago some could be trapped but a lot of this is speculation, as you imagine, this is an active scope there. it does, however looking at the pictures seem less active than it did a while ago, when it seemed people were frantically searching the area. what sense do you get looking at the pictures and hearing that 8-10 cars could have derailed. i am sure you took the train many a time between washington and new york this is in the city of philadelphia. the train derailed on a kerb. >> that's what the - some report - there was an associated press reporter on the train, indicating that the train seemed to start into a curve. he was in the back of a train, but said the front of the train seemed to wobble and come off the rail. the north-east train can go up

to 125 miles an hour. i don't know what the speed is of this section of the track. "an area north of philadelphia it's a crowded area, but the train can go quite quickly, and, in fact i've been in the front of the train with the engineers, it's amazing how fast they go you can't feel it in the train. they can go deposit. obviously if that many cars came off the rail, it will be interesting why it was, is it because it was on a curve and it pulled the other cars off. these are very sturdy cars. one of the things the n.t.s.b. will be looking at is survival factors - were the cars good enough to protect the people inside. how were the people inside injured? people said injured, why were

they injured, what could be done to cheaping the cars to make sure they were better protected. it's something done at all crashes, and leads to big safety improvements as john mentioned amtrak has been starved for money, and said it is not getting the support that is needed and the ridership in the last number of years, it's not a money making venture. they need to keep it up and leans running smoothly. >> we were looking at a picture of a train. it shows cars, something that looks like an s in the way they were derailed there. you were talking about train engineers, we have richard beale, a certified engineer a railroad safety consultant experts, and he joins us from miami, as you look at the

pictures what is your gut reaction. >> it's too early to tell. obviously there's going to be a lot of injuries that will be taken the rest of the night to take care of the people get them out and extricated. they are having a hard time with lighting. one of the biggest things at the moment, and maybe they have cut it this is electrified to the loco motive by electricity. it's 12,000 volts. any of those lines, if they are compromised or down. it has to be paramount. >> to be very careful with the lines, because of the danger they pose with the rescue workers and those trying to get off. >> you better believe it and could be intwined into the wreckage as well.

they'll be looking for one of three things, when they are getting town to tacks trying to find out what happened. they'll look at the spot where the first wheel went off for whatever reason and go from there. it will probably be one of three things - track problem, a railcar problem or a loko motif problem or crew error. i have heard them talk about it's possibly compromised with a freight car or train or whatever. there's a chance that there was a passenger freight train and maybe it derailed. we don't know, it's too dark to tell from my vantage point in my living room. >> the source we get this from puts up the occasional red line to indicate things on the screen. and the latest seems to be showing where the railroad track itself was, and it seemed - again, going by what i said going on the screen it seemed a

lot of cars were close to the track, but a number. of others were not. you mentioned the possibility of the report, a freight train going in the other direction, wouldn't we see that there much . it seems all the cars we are looking at are from the north-east regional, that's the sense i get looking at the pictures. >> in flipping channels i'm going by what people could be reporting on. they said that one car in particular looked like it was shredded and they mentioned the freight car. it could be a single freight car or maybe it was a passing train tore they were sitting there. in the course of a trip you pass thousands and thousands of freight cars.

it could be if they derail, it got into a car. the picture they are showing is a more damaged train car. this one, again we don't have a light on it but it seems there is one that is more damaged than the rest. >> from what i see it's further from the track. i have heard reports, someone on the train said they felt like the front end, the head engine felt like it was rocking or swaying, being compromised to begin with. it could be a number of things speed, maybe they took the curve too fast or a rail failed. but there'll be event recorders black boxes on the locomotives, if they can be gotten to they are probably in the process of downloading them. >> stick around with us if you

can. let's bring in todd curtis al jazeera's transportation communicator. he's in newton massachusetts. todd, what do you know? >> well like most of the people watching this around the country in the world - not much. in part because the primary purpose of the first responders is to get the survivors out. this is a major event. this is something at the moment as was pointed out by lisa stark. this will be an asset transportation. as with any investigation, nothing can be ruled in or out. there'll be human area lapses equipment failure. they'll look to see if this was a deliberate action.

>> it's something to be concerned about. there's no reports indicating foul play. do you get any sense of why one car would be so much worse off than the others? well again. looking at the shots you have coming in there. the first car seems to be the most heavily damage. that will be looked at. there's equipment that was near the track, looks like an likal line. this was a complexent. it will indicate things such as whether or not things were out of kilter whether it was beyond

the speed limits for the track, and this being the modern age of communication, there may be passengers on the train with information, be it an audio or video recording or photograph in or near the time of event shedding light as to the causes. >> there's more sources of information when it comes to any of these events than what we had in the past. pictures of stunning. how quickly will it turn to the investigation, as opposed to the rescue part of the operation? >> well, the investigation began, because the first responders will be instrumental in recovering information or relaying information to the n.t.s.b. and others. for example, if something is happening right at the time.

event - fire smoke, et cetera, anything unusual. that would dissipate for a few minutes. the eyewitness testimony will be crit cole to understanding what went on. perhaps the only fortunate thing about an accident of this magnitude is it took place in the metropolitan area. every met pal tan area practice for -- metropolitan area practice for mass casualty events like this. you have an extraordinary amount of equipment. police and fire trauma centers throughout the city that can take care of all the victims of this event. the injury toll - and let's hope there are no deaths here, but the injuries would have been more severe had there been a delay in getting treatment for the victims. >> we are looking at the picture which unfortunately - it's gone away.

there seems to be a chunk of a car to the right of the screen of a derailed car. lisa stark you want to address the investigation and how it will proceed. >> yes the n.t.s.b. will launch their go team. they'll look at the wreckage. once they are convinced they have everyone out of the train, that's when the investigation really gets under way obviously the first priority is getting everyone out. there'll be different parties, someone looking at the human factors, what was the train crew doing, survivability, they'll look at the track, the lights and the signals to see if they

were operating. was someone supposed to stop the train and they didn't see it. they'll look at all these areas. i think one guest richard, mentioned there are often trains to the side freight trains, a box car or two. we don't know if the car ke see that is badly mangled was an amtrak train or if it was hit, it's hard to tell because it's so dark out there. it's hard to tell what we are seeing until we can see what is going on in the light. clearly it was a severe crash violent and as we have been saying hopefully there'll be no fatalities at the end of the day these pictures are from earlier. >> lisa, it's john we had a rail crash north of the new york city last year when a train took a curve too quickly, and one in

february out at fresno when a train hit a truck much the pictures look similar to this. why are we having a spate of rail crashes at the moment? is there a reason you can think of? >> i can't tell you for sure what the safety record is without doing some more digging. on the whole, travelling by rail is sof. unfortunately there are accidents. there has been a lot of concern about crossings, we had a lot of accidents where trains hit trucks and cars. >> there was an amtrak train that hit one. >> in february, too. >> exactly. >> one on sunday in the new orleans area. no one on the train was injured, but if killed the driver on the flat bed truck. we do not have an indication that this juncture, this was

that sort of an accident. there's a lot of rail in the u.s. it's safe, but as with anything one little thing can go wrong, it carries a lot of people and can cause a derailment. >> i don't think there are crossings in that area. we'll say on top of this story. we'll bring you the latest as it go in. disaster in an already stricken nation. another powerful earthquake in nepal. it kills dozens and injured more than 1,000.

we continue with the breaking news from philadelphia, an amtrak train that derailed from washington to new york city, we know that there are a number of injuries, we'll stay on top of the story. we want to show you and listen

into a video posted on instagram from inside a train car that detrailed. >> oh man. >> i got you, okay. >> he's crawling okay. >> where am i crawling. >> crawl forward, sir. >> keep crawling. >> come on ma'am. >> i got you, okay. >> he's crawling okay so that's again, video from inside one of the trains as someone tried to escape who was clearly at least somewhat injured. and there are other reports of passengers who had to climb out of the train and ended up being on a train on its side, and had to get off the - that side of the train, and - to safety. very alarming pictures from philadelphia. these are from earlier tonight. let's bring back in todd curtis al jazeera's transportation contributor.

it's scary to see pictures like those, how a train completely was squeezed in a way that a man has to struggle to get through to get out. >> certainly. something like that is not prevent to see, and again, because of the way the internet is so pervasive, it's almost inescapable that you'll see image, it may give the general public more worries than necessary. this might mag ni fi what is going on here. the track people from amtrak - it's an expensive system going coast to coast. the north-east corner is by far the most heavily travelled section and a replacement and substitute for air, bus and car. this will be something that will affect thousands in the day to

come. depending how it pans occupant it may affect -- pans out, it may affect a lot of people it's probably affecting people travelling on it later tonight. so thousands and thousands will be affected in their commutes tomorrow. this is a story that will stay with us for a while. we'll stay with it through the our. i want to move onto other new, and another story is out of north korea. falling sleep could be considered treason and punishable by death, according to south korea's intelligence agency. north korea's defense chief was executed by firing squad. it's alleged he fell asleep during a military event attended by kun. his -- kim jong un his actions were considered a sign of disrespect to the north korean

leader. harry fawcett joins us live from seoul. what do you here about the execution. >> we are hearing it from south korea's intelligence service, no confirmation. he has apparently this man, been executed for trees job, and that constituted not just falling asleep but showing disillusionment with kim jong un's leadership, failing to carry out his instructions essentially disloyalty to the top man. according to south korea, he was executed in the public and extreme of way, killed by an antiaircraft machine-gun at an airfield. this is a technique report in north korea. earlier this month, one n.g.o. human rights in north korea released satellite images shot in october, seeming to show an execution take place, this is an

execution of a senior man, the second ranking man in north korea's vast military. >> he is not the only person that kim jong un has executed at a high level. his uncle, who was reportedly a man that his father wanted to help him transition into being north korea's leader was executed more than a year ago. there has been reports that that man's wife kim jong un's aunt, may have been killed by the north korean leadership. >> those rites. they e-americaned -- emerged, but reports said reports of his aunt being killed or poisoned were groundless. he has shown no reluctance to kill high ranking people in his short wall.

his uncle was seen as his steward after he took over from his uncle after his death. he was killed in 2013, humiliated in front of the world's media, not just in front of other ranking people and the population at large in north korea. before that the then chief of the military was executed and that was publicly attested to buy the nooe yn leader this -- north korean leadership. this time no such report from pyongyang. before 2015, some officials were executed for disagree about architecture or forestry policies, it seems kim jong un is wielding the axe in a pretty large-scale way. i spoke to a north korean analyst who said perhaps not too much should be read into this his father and grandfather used techniques to maintain their

hold on power. >> maybe it indicates that he has some fear about his hold on power. faut in seoul -- harry fawcett in seoul. good of you to talk to us. we go back to philadelphia. and our conversation with the doctor who nearly lost his site to ebola months after he was declared disease free.