TOKYO (AP) – A crowded commuter train derailed and plowed into an apartment building in western Japan on Monday, turning passenger cars into twisted clumps of metal. At least 37 people were killed and some 200 injured, officials said.

The seven-car commuter train operated by West Japan Railway Co. also hit an automobile at the crossing near Amagasaki, about 250 miles west of Tokyo, but it was not immediately clear if the car was hit before or after the derailment.

Officials said the cause of the accident was not yet known, but survivors told national broadcaster NHK that the train seemed to be moving too fast when it hit a curve near the apartment house. The rail company reported that the train, which was carrying 580 passengers, had overshot the stop line at the last station before the accident.

“There are many theories but we don’t know for sure what caused the accident,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda. “The prime minister instructed us to respond with urgency.”

The train operator apologized for the accident.

“Our most important task now is to rescue the passengers from the accident and we are doing our best,” JR West President Takeshi Kakiuchi told reporters.

The train’s driver, 23, was in serious condition, Kyodo News Agency said.

JR said he had 11 months of experience.

The train jumped the rails as it approached a track-side apartment house.

TV footage showed wrecked cars of the train piled accordion-like at the base of the building. Hundreds of survivors and rescue officials swarmed the disaster site.

An official with the Hyogo state police speaking on condition of anonymity said at least 37 people were killed, confirming a report by the Kyodo News agency. Police said about 200 others were injured. It was not immediately known whether the victims were on the train, on the street or inside the apartment.

NHK said the train collided with a car in between train stations while traveling at 43 mph.

“There was violent shakings, and the next moment I was thrown to the floor, several meters (yards) away from where I was sitting, and I landed on top of a pile of other people,” said Tatsuya Akashi, a passenger who was on third or fourth car, in an interview with NHK.

“I didn’t know what happened, and there were many people bleeding,” he added. “Passengers, many of them high school students, were panicking.”

Japan is home to one of the world’s most complex and heavily traveled rail networks, but such derailings are rare. An earthquake in 2004 caused a bullet train to derail – the first since the high speed trains went into service 40 years ago.

AP-ES-04-25-05 0004EDT