At least 17 people have been killed and dozens seriously injured after a train in central Iran crashed into an excavator and partially derailed.
Key points:
- Five of the 11 train cars went off the track
- The accident happened when the train hit an excavator
- The death toll is expected to rise due to the number of critically injured
Mehdi Valipour, head of emergency operations for the Iranian Red Crescent, said five of the 11 train coaches went off the track in the incident 50 kilometers outside the central Iranian city of Tabas around 5 p.m. : 30 this Wednesday morning.
Rescue crews of 24 ambulances and three helicopters were called to the remote area, about 550 km southeast of the country’s capital, and transported 37 passengers with critical injuries to local hospitals.
“The death toll could rise as most of the injured are in critical condition,” said emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi.
Iran’s deputy head of state railways Mir Hassan Moussavi told state media that the train was carrying 348 passengers.
He “derailed after hitting an excavator” that was near the road, he said.
The Tabas prosecutor visited the scene as a judicial investigation into the cause of the crash began, Iranian media reported.
The incident happened on the railway linking Tabas with the central city of Yazd.
Iran has mourned the deaths of at least 41 people killed in the collapse of a building in the southwest of the country. (Mohammad Amin Ansari, Fars News Agency via AP)
Iran’s worst train disaster came in 2004, when a runaway train loaded with gasoline, fertilizer, sulfur and cotton crashed near the historic city of Neyshabur, killing about 320 people, injuring 460 more and damaging five villages. .
Another train crash in 2016 caused dozens of deaths and dozens of injuries.
Iran has 14,000 kilometers of railway lines.
Its railway system sends people and goods all over the country, especially in rural areas.
Iran also has about 17,000 deaths a year on its roads, one of the worst traffic safety records in the world.
The high toll is attributed to a great deal of ignorance of traffic laws, unsafe vehicles and inadequate emergency services.
Iran, which is already struggling under U.S. sanctions over its collapsed nuclear deal, has mourned the deaths of at least 41 people killed in the collapse of a building in the country’s southwest.