QUITO -- Fourteen children were injured when a train derailed Monday near Quito, Ecuadorian Red Cross spokesman Johnny Franco told Efe.

A train car carrying about 30 children rolled on its side after the derailment, which occurred just after the train started moving and was apparently caused by a technical problem at a railway crossing.

Empresa de Ferrocarriles Ecuatorianos manager Jorge Carrera said in a press conference that the accident happened when a switch was triggered before all the cars had passed, causing the train, which was on its inaugural run, to derail and overturning the second car.

Franco said 10 of the 14 injured children were treated at the accident scene and four were taken to Baca Ortiz Children's Hospital for treatment of "serious chest and back" injuries, but their condition is not known.

The train is part of a tourism project designed to renovate and promote Ecuador's railroads, which were constructed a century ago and cross the country's Andean region.

The first train was heading to Machachi, a city about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from Quito, with five cars carrying children from several schools in the capital.