Reports: Russian Train Derails
Monday August 13, 2007 9:16 PM
MOSCOW (AP) - Ruqssia's national railway operator said that an explosion caused a train from Moscow to St. Petersburg to derail late Monday, injuring at least 10 people, Russian news agencies reported.
Russian Railways told RIA-Novosti that the train driver heard a loud bang immediately before some cars went off the tracks around 9:45 p.m. near the city of Novgorod, about 300 miles northwest of Moscow.
The report couldn't be immediately confirmed with officials. A woman who answered a hot line at Russian Railways and identified herself only as Yekaterina, said: ``There was an incident. We don't know exactly what happened. But everything is in order now.''
Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said at least 10 people had been injured. He said emergency workers on the site told him that only three passenger cars had derailed.
The Moscow-St. Petersburg route is one of the busiest routes for the Russian Railways network, and is popular particularly among foreign tourists.
