AMAGASAKI, Japan, April 25 (UPI) -- Fifty people were killed and about 300 people were injured after a Japan Railways train derailed Monday morning and hit an apartment building.

The train carrying nearly 600 passengers, mostly commuters and schoolchildren, derailed on a curve in the city of Amagasaki in Hyogo prefecture, about 255 miles west of Tokyo, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Monday.

The front carriage of the seven-carriage train split in two as it hit the apartment building and wrapped itself around the building, the BBC reported.

Many people remained trapped in the wreckage Monday afternoon, with rescue workers using cutters to open the train and pull them out.

The train's operator, West Japan Railway, said it is investigating the accident. Passengers reported that the train was traveling quickly, possibly to make up for a short delay when the train overran the previous station and had to back up.

One passenger in the front carriage said it seemed as if the train was traveling faster than normal as it entered the curve.

The driver, 23, sustained serious injuries, but is believed to have survived the crash, the BBC reported. He became a train driver less than a year ago.