Close to 200 people were killed and hundreds of others injured on Wednesday when runaway rail wagons loaded with an explosive cocktail of sulphur, petrol and fertiliser derailed and blew up in northeast Iran, local officials said.
According to officials in the nearby northeastern city of Mashhad, the string of dozens of wagons began rolling out of control before coming off the tracks and catching fire.
The cargo blew up as firefighters, watched by curious villagers, were attempting to douse the flames.
“Up to now, accurate reports say 182 people are dead and 350 injured,” Mohammad Maghdori, a deputy governor general of Khorassan province and chief of emergencies, told state television after a day of wildly varying tolls.
The head of Khorassan province’s disasters unit, Vahid Barakchi, told the state news agency Irna that the death toll stood at “more than 200”.
“The explosion happened at a time when the firefighters and the rescue workers were trying to put out the fire, and a number of the firefighters and local villagers were killed in the explosion,” Barakchi added.
The rail disaster came was Iran was still recovering from the shock of the earthquake in the southeastern city of Bam in late December, where up to 45 000 people were killed.
Television pictures showed smashed, blackened and burning tank wagons and other rolling stock piled up on the tracks as firemen hosed the wreckage.
Surrounding villages also suffered serious damage, with three helicopters sent into the area to help scores of ambulances evacuate the wounded.
Irna said police and members of the Revolutionary Guards had established a security perimeter due to the risk of further explosions. Their report said an appeal for blood donors had been made to cope with the needs of people who suffered horrific burns.
The deadly mix of cargoes the wagons were carrying is likely to raise serious questions, and officials said a team from the province and the capital, Tehran, were already probing the causes of the accident.
The huge blast occurred at Khayyam station, in a fertile and mainly agricultural area near the town of Neyshabour. The station gets its name from the nearby grave of Persia’s famed poet Omar Khayyam, who lived from 1048 to 1122.
It was heard in the provincial capital of Mashhad, about 75km away near the borders with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
Local officials said the rail wagons, which were parked in a nearby station, began rolling away in the early hours of the morning, possibly after being jolted by a light earthquake.
After racing out of control, the 51 wagons — loaded with sulphur, petrol, fertiliser and cotton — then derailed and a fire erupted with several minor explosions reported, drawing firefighters and locals to the scene.
When the major explosion occurred at about 9.37am local time, the seismological unit of Tehran University recorded an earth tremor measuring 3,6 on the Richter scale in the same area — possibly a reading sparked by the force of the blast.
Hossein Zaresefat, the deputy governor general of Khorassan province in charge of security, said by telephone that at least two local officials were among the dead.
They were the governor of Neyshabour city, Mojtaba Farahmand, and the local electricity chief, Morteza Fahrian. Irna said the head of the fire department was also dead, while its own correspondent from Neyshabour was missing.
The accident occurred as the Islamic republic was gearing up for parliamentary elections, due to be held on Friday. — AFP