Sunday, June 12, 2005

A Russian passenger train has been derailed by an explosion on Sunday, the FSB has said in a statement. A FSB spokesman said 12 people have been injured, when two carriages of a train heading from the Chechen capital Grozny derailed 90 miles south of Moscow.

Officials have reported that two people have been rushed to hospital, while others who sustained lighter injuries were offered medical assistance at the crash site and delivered to Moscow by commuter train. The spokesman did not say who might be responsible for the attack on the train, which at the time was carrying more than 300 passengers.

Only an hour prior to the incident, a train carrying elementary school pupils from Beslan, North Ossetia on their way to Croatia passed on the same track. 56 children were heading to a Moscow airport, from where they flew to Zagreb. In September last year, 172 children died in the Beslan school hostage crisis.