Russian Train Derailed by Bomb Blast, Injuring 15
Matthew Cole
June 12, 2005
RUSSIA - A train bound from Chechnya to Moscow Sunday was derailed after an explosion created a crater in the track. At least fifteen people have been reported injured in the blast.
The blast occurred as the Russians were preparing to mark the Day of Russia, a version of Independence Day.
Two men were seen near the derailment and are being sought in the bombing. The explosion was equivalent of 6 pounds of TNT. A remote-control detonation device was discovered about 50 yards from the track.
The explosion sent four railcars off the track and the crater the blast left behind was approximately one and a half feet deep.
The train was 90 miles from the Russian capital when the explosion took place.
According to reports the train, traveling from the Chechen capital of Grozny when the driver of the passenger train spotted the explosion on the tracks ahead of the engine car.
The train would have suffered more derailments and more than likely more injured had it been further away from the station and traveling at a higher rate of speed. The train’s relatively slow speed prevented more severe causalities.
The worst injuries to reported to be of the train conductor and an 18-month-old girl, both of whom suffered burns. Another 42 passengers were treated for high blood pressure and released.
Russian officials declined to speculate on those responsible for the attack. In other acts of terrorism Chechen rebels have frequently staged their attacks on Russian holidays.
The families of the passengers of the train who rushed to the Moscow station when news of the explosion was broadcast on television, they were told only that the train was delayed and given no more detail.
Those who were not injured in the blast arrived at the station on an alternate train some five hours after the explosion derailed their initial train.
The blast occurred as the Russians were preparing to mark the Day of Russia, a version of Independence Day.
Two men were seen near the derailment and are being sought in the bombing. The explosion was equivalent of 6 pounds of TNT. A remote-control detonation device was discovered about 50 yards from the track.
The explosion sent four railcars off the track and the crater the blast left behind was approximately one and a half feet deep.
The train was 90 miles from the Russian capital when the explosion took place.
According to reports the train, traveling from the Chechen capital of Grozny when the driver of the passenger train spotted the explosion on the tracks ahead of the engine car.
The train would have suffered more derailments and more than likely more injured had it been further away from the station and traveling at a higher rate of speed. The train’s relatively slow speed prevented more severe causalities.
The worst injuries to reported to be of the train conductor and an 18-month-old girl, both of whom suffered burns. Another 42 passengers were treated for high blood pressure and released.
Russian officials declined to speculate on those responsible for the attack. In other acts of terrorism Chechen rebels have frequently staged their attacks on Russian holidays.
The families of the passengers of the train who rushed to the Moscow station when news of the explosion was broadcast on television, they were told only that the train was delayed and given no more detail.
Those who were not injured in the blast arrived at the station on an alternate train some five hours after the explosion derailed their initial train.
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