St. Petersburg, Nov 28 (RIA Novosti) Twenty-five people were killed and 63 were injured in the derailment of a train bound from Moscow to Russia’s second largest city St. Petersburg, prosecutors said Saturday.
Three cars of the 12-car Nevsky Express train that can travel at 200 km per hour went off the tracks Friday evening near the town of Bologoye on the border between Russia’s Tver and Novgorod regions.
Earlier emergencies officials said 22 people were killed and 54 injured in the accident that President Dmitry Medvedev was informed about. Medvedev ordered that all possible resources be used to render medical assistance to those harmed.
The Russian Railways (RZD) railroad monopoly said that train could have been blown up, but power outage on the railroad is also considered a possible reason for the accident. A Moscow police source told RIA Novosti earlier that the train driver had used the emergency brakes just before the derailment.
RZD said fifty injured passengers have been sent to hospitals in nearby towns. Those not injured left the site inside cars, buses and on another train bound for St. Petersburg.
Russian Railways said trains will move along a bypass route after the accident to keep railroad communication between the two largest Russian cities running.
Despite that, car drivers in St. Petersburg offer to take people from the northern city to Moscow at 1,500 rubles ($51) per person, according to a RIA Novosti correspondent.
Two Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft were earlier reported heading to the accident site carrying equipment for a mobile hospital to render medical assistance to injured passengers.
It takes express trains some four hours to travel about 650 km from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
