ÌEmergency personnel respond to the scene of a Metro-North passenger train derailment in the Bronx borough of New York Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013. The train derailed on a curved section of track in the Bronx on Sunday morning, coming to rest just inches from the water and causing multiple fatalities and dozens of injuries, authorities said. Metropolitan Transportation Authority police say the train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
It's unclear how many passengers were on board the train when it derailed. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the train's operator was among those injured.
"It's obviously a very tragic situation," Cuomo said. "The first order of business is to care for the people on the train."
Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said that the derailment occurred at approximately 7:20 a.m. Five of the train's seven cars derailed, he said, but none went into the water.
Three of the four people who died were found outside the train, the FDNY said. Scuba divers were dispatched to search the river near the derailed train.
"If this was a workday, it was fully occupied, it would've been a tremendous disaster," Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano told reporters.
According to the MTA, the train left Poughkeepsie at approximately 5:54 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Grand Central at 7:43 a.m. Service has been suspended indefinitely on the Hudson Line between Grand Central and Croton Harmon.
President Barack Obama was briefed on the accident Sunday, the White House said.
Joel Zaritsky, a passenger who was on board the train, said he was asleep when the train derailed.
"I was asleep and I woke up when the car started rolling several times," Zaritsky told the AP. "Then I saw the gravel coming at me, and I heard people screaming. There was smoke everywhere and debris. People were thrown to the other side of the train."
Jack Babcock, another passenger, had a similar experience. "When I woke up, we were just flipping over," Babcock told Newsday. "Glass broke, and there were trees and dirt coming through the windows."
Aerial photos taken above the scene showed several train cars laying on their sides, and one near the water along a bank of the Bronx River.
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