BRKG (11/27) Russia- Train crash kills 22, terrorism suspected

Train crash kills 22, terrorism suspected



Twenty-two people are dead and 55 injured after a Russian train crashed in what officials said could have been an act of terrorism.

Four carriages of the luxury train travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg were derailed at 9:30pm local time near the town of Bologoye, 350 kilometres from Moscow.

"A one metre-diameter hole has been found next to the railway track," Interfax news agency said, quoting an unnamed source in Moscow's law enforcement agencies.

" Witnesses heard a loud slap before the accident. All of this could point to a possible act of terrorism."

Earlier Russian news agencies quoted transport officials as saying the cause may have been an electrical fault.

President Dmitry Medvedev was immediately informed about the accident and Russian railways chief Vladimir Yakunin rushed to the scene.

A Kremlin spokesman said Mr Medvedev spoke to Mr Yakunin.

"The head of the state told the director of federal security service Alexander Bortnikov and Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika to take all necessary steps to investigate the accident," the spokesman said.

In 2007, 30 people were injured when the same Nevsky Express train was derailed after an explosion damaged rails.

A group of suspects are now being tried for that attack in the north-western city of Novgorod.

They are suspected of links to a leading Chechen rebels, Doku Umarov.

Once frequent attacks in Russia have declined dramatically since Moscow largely subdued an Islamist insurgency in the troubled North Caucasus province of Chechnya.

- Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/28/2756206.htm?section=world

Bomb suspected as Russian train crash kills 22


At least 22 people were killed and 54 injured on Friday when a train travelling between the Russian capital Moscow and St Petersburg derailed, possibly as a result of an attack, Russian media reported.

The train was travelling between the Russian capital Moscow and St Petersburg.

Four wagons of the Nevski Express came off the tracks late on Friday evening in the Novgorod region, a railways official told the Ria-Novosti news agency.

Russia's state-run Itar-Tass news agency quoted the emergencies ministry and a railway official as saying that 22 people were dead and 54 injured.


Bomb suspected: The Russian train derailment caused by a bomb in 2007, near where today's derailment occured. Source: Reuters

A unnamed security official was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that a 1m-wide crater was found near the scene of the disaster.

"Witnesses say they heard a loud bang before the accident. This could be proof of an attack," the source said.

A railways official also told Itar-Tass that "an attack is one of the possibilities" being looked at by the police.

In 2007, a bomb on the same line derailed a train, injuring 60 passengers, with Chechen separatist or ultra-nationalist groups suspected.

Russian media said emergency services had been rushed to the scene of the crash, with most of the injured evacuated to local hospitals.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/bo...n-crash-kills-22/story-e6frf7jo-1225804824785

Definitely a bomb- death toll has risen

At Least 39 Dead in Russian Train Derailment

UGLOVKA, Russia, Nov 28 (Reuters) - At least 39 people were killed and nearly 100 injured when a Russian express train was derailed late on Friday in what the head of the national railway company said could have been a bomb attack.

Russian prosecutors said on Saturday they had opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism and illegal possession of explosives but did not say what could have been the motive behind any attack or who they might suspect.

"There is objective evidence that ... a blast from an explosive device is one of the explanations for the Nevsky Express incident," Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin told reporters at the scene.

The Nevsky Express, carrying 661 passengers from Moscow to St Petersburg, was derailed at 9:34 p.m. (1834 GMT) near the village of Uglovka about 350 km (200 miles) north of Moscow.

A Reuters photographer saw soldiers carrying four body bags away from the scene where rescue workers cut through the tangled steel to search for survivors in two wrecked train carriages.

Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu was told by a ministry official on a video conference shown live on Vesti-24 state television that the death toll had risen to 39 after more bodies had been pulled from wrecked carriages.

Ministry officials later said only 25 people had been confirmed as dead, though they said the toll could rise and that at least 18 people were still unaccounted for.

FEARS

The derailment is Russia's worst train accident for years and may raise fears of a surge in attacks on the Russian heartland by rebels from the North Caucasus.

After a blast in August 2007 that derailed a Nevsky Express train on the same line and injured at least 30 people, prosecutors arrested two residents of Ingushetia and charged them with helping to carry out the attack.

Russian prosecutors said they believed ex-soldier Pavel Kosolapov, a former associate of the late Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, was the mastermind behind that blast. Kosolapov is still on the run.

Interfax news agency said a 1-metre (3-ft) wide crater had been found next to the railway track, though Reuters reporters at the scene did not see one.

A railway official who asked not to be named said a witness had reported hearing a loud bang, though another passenger told reporters in St Petersburg there had been no blast.

President Dmitry Medvedev has been informed about the derailment which has delayed 27,000 people as transport officials try to divert trains along smaller lines.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "We are deeply saddened by the terrible loss of life and injuries resulting from the reported derailment of a train between Moscow and St Petersburg."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/28/world/international-russia-train.html

President Dmitry Medvedev was immediately informed about the accident and Russian railways chief Vladimir Yakunin rushed to the scene.

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The KGB is gonna have fun with this one.

There's a reason why this guy rushed to the scene: he knows his head is on the chopping block!!!

I got a buck that says he ends up feeding the fishes in the Volga!!

They're wearing the same orange gear as British railway workers......

part of the NWO

yellow = road workers

orange = railway workers

The Chechens are too blame.....not surprising that the Iranians are supplying the chechens with technology and arms to commit acts like this.....This is the third attack in recent years that I can remember happening inside Russia...Concert hall, school building and now this......I don't remember unless it was covert and unreported..I don't know how this will pan out but if I were a Chech I wouldn't be very excited tonight...