TEHRAN, June 8, 2022 (AFP) – At least 21 people were killed and dozens were injured when a passenger train derailed on Wednesday near the central Iranian city of Tabas.
“Twenty-one people died in the accident,” Ahmed Dehghan, head of Yazd province’s emergency services, said by state television IRIB.
Authorities reported that 24 ambulances and 3 helicopters were dispatched to the scene.
The train was traveling from Mashhad (northeast) to Yazd (centre) with 348 passengers when it derailed in the desert at around 05:30 local time (22:00 GMT).
Tabas is located in South Khorasan Province, 900 km from Tehran by road.
Mir Hassan Mussavi, deputy director of Iran’s state railways, told state television that the train “derailed after colliding with an excavator” near the railway.
According to state television images, some of the injured were taken to the hospital by helicopter.
According to the images broadcast on state television, rescue teams examined the overturned wagons while people were looking around.
One of the images showed a yellow excavator on one side of the road.
Mehdi Valipur, head of emergency operations at Iran’s Red Crescent, told state television that five of the train’s 11 wagons were derailed.
– Investigation – President Ebrahim Raisi announced from his office that he expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and ordered a speedy investigation of the causes of the accident.
Roads and Urban Development Minister Rustam Ghasemi apologized to the Iranians on Twitter and said his ministry was responsible for the incident.
According to Iranian media, the Tabas prosecutor visited the crash site and announced that an investigation was launched.
The accident occurred two weeks after a building under construction in southwest Iran collapsed, a tragedy that left 43 dead.
On May 23, the 10-storey Metropol building under construction in Abadan, one of the main cities of Khuzestan province, partially collapsed on a busy street.
State justice has announced that it has arrested 13 people, including the mayor of Abadan and two former mayors, on suspicion of responsibility for the tragedy.
One of the deadliest disasters in Iran in recent years, the disaster sparked demonstrations across the country in solidarity with the victims’ families and against officials accused of corruption and incompetence.
In 2016, 44 people were killed and 82 injured as a result of the collision of two trains between Tehran and Mashhad in northern Iran.
The head of Iranian railways has resigned after four of his employees were detained after a collision on the main line between Tehran and Mashhad, the country’s second city.
source: Noticias
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