AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. -- A screech, followed by a roar, and then silence.
That was how residents living near the scene of Monday's terrible train crash, in which 69 people were killed and more than 440 were injured, described what they heard.
"We only live a few hundred meters from where the train derailed. I didn't see the crash, but I heard a very loud screeching sound, followed by a strange roar that I'd never heard before. After that there was silence," said Makiko Kobayashi, a 49-year-old resident of Amagasaki.
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