Seven people were killed and dozens injured after bridges in two separate Russian regions bordering Ukraine collapsed overnight, officials said yesterday, with rail authorities blaming at least one incident on “illegal interference.”
In Russia’s Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, a road bridge collapsed onto a railway line late on Saturday, derailing a passenger train heading to Moscow and killing seven people.
A separate rail bridge in the neighboring Kursk region also collapsed overnight, derailing a freight train and injuring the driver, officials said.
Photo: Reuters
Authorities did not say what caused the collapses, nor provide details on the incidents, but prosecutors said they had opened an investigation.
Videos posted on social media from the Bryansk region showed rescuers clambering over the mangled chassis of a train belonging to national operator Russian Railways, while screams could be heard in another video.
“There are seven dead as a result of the collapse of a bridge onto railway tracks,” Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.
At least 66 others were injured, including three children, he said, giving a revised toll.
In a separate incident in the Kursk region, a rail bridge collapsed onto a road, derailing a freight train.
“Last night... in the Zheleznogorsk district, a bridge collapsed while a freight locomotive was passing. Part of the train fell onto the road below the bridge,” Kursk Governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram.
“One of the locomotive drivers suffered leg injuries, and the entire crew was taken to hospital,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Russian investigators on the cause of either collapse.
Moscow Railway, a state-owned railway operator, had blamed the incident in the Bryansk region on “illegal interference in the operation of transport” in a post online.
However, it later appeared to have removed the reference to “illegal interference” from its post.
Ukraine, which Russia has blamed for previous incidents, did not immediately comment.
An Agence France-Presse reporter in central Moscow saw ambulances parked at Kievsky railway station awaiting the arrival of injured passengers.
In one video posted from the Bryansk region social media account, someone could be heard screaming as eyewitnesses rushed to find help.
“How did the bridge collapse? There are children there,” a woman can be heard shouting in the video.
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