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Dozens Injured

Russian Train Derailed in Suspected Bomb Attack

Dozens of passengers were injured when a night train overturned en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg, one of Russia's busiest routes. Russian authorities say the derailment was caused by a homemade bomb on the track and are treating it as an act of terrorism.

A Russian overnight express train travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed on Monday night after a suspected bomb exploded on the track, injuring dozens of passengers, authorities said. Russian prosecutors said they had launched a terrorism investigation.

"The train accident was caused by a homemade explosive device," Sergei Bednichenko, chief prosecutor for Russia's North West district, told Channel One television. "A criminal case has been opened under article 205, clause 3, that is terrorism."

It was not clear who planted the bomb. Groups linked to an insurgency in Russia's Chechnya region have used bombs to target passenger trains in the past. In 2003, an explosion tore through a morning commuter train outside Yessentuki, north-west of Chechnya, killing 46 people.

In 2005, a passenger train heading from Chechnya to Moscow was derailed about 150 km. from the Russian capital. Eight people were treated in hospital.

Monday night's blast happened at about 9:30 p.m. and hit the Neva Express train near the city of Novgorod, about 300 miles north of the capital. The locomotive and a dozen passenger cars derailed. Sixty passengers and train crew were injured in the derailment, and 38 of them were admitted to hospital, a spokeswoman for rail operator Russian Railways said, according to the Reuters news agency. About 250 people were on board in all.

The train derailed just after crossing a bridge over a road, said a Reuters photographer at the scene. The blast left a crater on the bridge about 2 metres (6 ft) in diameter.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an FSB official as saying the bomb contained 2 kg. (4.4 lbs.) of explosive material. Transport Minister Igor Levitin was at the site of the blast.

"We heard two explosions, then the train put on the brakes suddenly," one conductor on board the train, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters. "The train shook. A panic started," he said. "We smashed out the glass and helped the passengers out ... The worst damage was in the restaurant car. That is where most of the casualties were."

The Reuters photographer said nearly all the carriages and the locomotive had left the tracks, and at least three carriages were tipped onto their side.

One passenger described the moments after the blast. "It was terrible. People were thrown to one side and there was this smell of burning," Viktoria Kovbas told Vesti-24 television. "There was an explosion, a real explosion ... The restaurant car is crumpled up like an accordion."

cro/Reuters/AP