26 die in Russian train crash
Source: Agencies |
November 29, 2009, Sunday
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THE head of Russia's domestic intelligence service said yesterday that a bomb was behind the derailment of an express train overnight that left at least 26 people killed and nearly 100 injured.
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that a bomb equivalent to 7 kilograms of TNT had derailed the train late on Friday.
Russian prosecutors said yesterday they had opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism and illegal possession of explosives but did not say who they suspected of responsibility or what their motives might have been.
"A blast from an explosive device is one of the main explanations for the Nevsky Express incident," Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin said at the scene.
He later told Vesti-24 state television that investigators believed the blast was "to put it simply, an act of terrorism."
The Nevsky Express, carrying 661 passengers from Moscow to St Petersburg, was derailed at 9:34pm near the village of Uglovka about 350 kilometers north of Moscow.
A Reuters photographer saw soldiers carrying four body bags away from the scene where rescue workers cut through the tangled steel to search for survivors in two wrecked train carriages.
Russia's Emergency Ministry said at least 26 people had been confirmed as dead with another 18 missing, though one rescue official earlier put the death toll as high as 39. The ministry said 96 people had been injured. Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said half the injured people were in serious condition.
The derailment is Russia's worst train disaster for years and could raise fears of a surge in attacks on the Russian heartland by rebels from the North Caucasus.
"The so-called Chechen trace is traditionally viewed as the main one during investigations of such disasters," said Alexei Mukhin of the Center for Political Information, but added that outdated infrastructure also caused major accidents in Russia.
Yakunin said Friday's blast looked similar to an explosion in August 2007 that derailed a Nevsky Express train on the same line and injured at least 30 people. Prosecutors at that time arrested two residents of Ingushetia and charged them with helping to carry out the attack. Prosecutors said they believed ex-soldier Pavel Kosolapov, a former associate of the late Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, was the mastermind behind the 2007 blast. Kosolapov is still on the run.
Friday's derailment delayed 27,000 people as transport officials tried to divert trains onto smaller lines.
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that a bomb equivalent to 7 kilograms of TNT had derailed the train late on Friday.
Russian prosecutors said yesterday they had opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism and illegal possession of explosives but did not say who they suspected of responsibility or what their motives might have been.
"A blast from an explosive device is one of the main explanations for the Nevsky Express incident," Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin said at the scene.
He later told Vesti-24 state television that investigators believed the blast was "to put it simply, an act of terrorism."
The Nevsky Express, carrying 661 passengers from Moscow to St Petersburg, was derailed at 9:34pm near the village of Uglovka about 350 kilometers north of Moscow.
A Reuters photographer saw soldiers carrying four body bags away from the scene where rescue workers cut through the tangled steel to search for survivors in two wrecked train carriages.
Russia's Emergency Ministry said at least 26 people had been confirmed as dead with another 18 missing, though one rescue official earlier put the death toll as high as 39. The ministry said 96 people had been injured. Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said half the injured people were in serious condition.
The derailment is Russia's worst train disaster for years and could raise fears of a surge in attacks on the Russian heartland by rebels from the North Caucasus.
"The so-called Chechen trace is traditionally viewed as the main one during investigations of such disasters," said Alexei Mukhin of the Center for Political Information, but added that outdated infrastructure also caused major accidents in Russia.
Yakunin said Friday's blast looked similar to an explosion in August 2007 that derailed a Nevsky Express train on the same line and injured at least 30 people. Prosecutors at that time arrested two residents of Ingushetia and charged them with helping to carry out the attack. Prosecutors said they believed ex-soldier Pavel Kosolapov, a former associate of the late Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, was the mastermind behind the 2007 blast. Kosolapov is still on the run.
Friday's derailment delayed 27,000 people as transport officials tried to divert trains onto smaller lines.
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