ZIBO (China), April 28: Seventy people were killed and 420 injured early on Monday when a passenger train from Beijing careered off the rails and slammed into another train in eastern China, state media reported.

Ruling out terrorism, the official Xinhua news agency said preliminary investigations found human error was to blame, without elaborating.

The first train was travelling to Qingdao -- the coastal city that will host the Olympic sailing competition in August -- when it derailed, causing a train coming in the opposite direction to leave the tracks.

Nine carriages derailed, China news service said, and the second train crashed into those still on the track.

The rail accident, the worst in China in more than a decade, happened near the city of Zibo in the Shandong province, the news service said.

Xinhua reported 70 people killed in the accident, quoting officials at the rescue headquarters. It said there were no foreigners among the dead.

The news agency said four French nationals were among those injured. They included three family members and a friend.—AFP