Reuters/AFP
A freight train jumped the tracks and collided with a passenger train near Moscow yesterday, ripping the side off one of the carriages and killing at least six people.
Dozens were injured and Russian officials said the death toll could rise.
All of the windows and most of the side of one green carriage had gone, a Reuters cameraman on the scene said.
Russian television footage showed dazed passengers clambering off the tilting train and climbing up a grassy bank to safety after the accident.
“One of the carriages of the passenger train was crushed by the freight train wagons,” news agency Itar-Tass quoted rescue co-ordinator Vadim Andronov as saying.
Russian Railways said in a statement that 15 wagons of the freight train had derailed, damaging at least two carriages of the passenger train.
At least 500 people were involved in rescue efforts, officials said, and seven helicopters were used to ferry the injured to hospitals.
The train had been on its way from Moscow to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, before the collision around 12.30pm (0830 GMT) near the town of Naro-Fominsk, 55km southwest of the Russian capital.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known but a criminal investigation has been opened.
“The investigation is looking at three possible causes for the accident: first, the poor condition of the freight train; second, the poor condition of the track at the location of the accident; and third, a violation by personnel on the train,” Tatyana Morozova, the deputy head of the regional transport investigation department, told AFP at the scene.
“We tried to use an emergency brake. We couldn’t see anything ahead, there was lots of dust. Visibility was zero,” state-run RIA news agency quoted one of the drivers of the passenger train as saying.
Meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shanghai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed his condolences.
Putin promised a thorough investigation and aid for the families of victims.
An official from state-owned Russian Railways told reporters at the scene that five people had been killed on the spot and a sixth had later died in hospital.
Russian Railways said the collision occurred after 15 freight-train carriages derailed.
Viktor Yatsenko, an official with Russia’s emergencies ministry, had earlier told a televised teleconference with other officials that 45 people had been hurt in addition to the dead.
He said 15 of the injured were seriously hurt.
Most of the injured were Moldovan citizens, Moscow regional health minister Nina Suslonova said on Rossiya-24 television.
Four of those who died and 13 of those hospitalised had been identified as Moldovan citizens, Moldova’s emergency ministry said.
The impoverished ex-Soviet state is largely Russian-speaking and many of its citizens work in Russia.
Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca said he was deeply grieved by the deaths and sent a message of sympathy to the injured, the government website said.
Several hours after the accident officials said the rescue operation was over and that the remaining passengers had been evacuated from the area. Service on the line was expected to resume later in the day.
The Interfax news agency quoted a local representative of French carmaker Renault saying the freight train had been carrying parts for use in its plant in Moscow.