July 07, 2013 14:11
76 people have been injured with six in hospital after a passenger train derailed in southern Russia, the country’s Emergencies Ministry reported.
Five cars derailed when the 19-car train heading from Novosibirsk in Siberia to the Black Sea resort of Adler came off the tracks in the Kuschevsky district of the southern Krasnodar region.
A police source told ITAR-TASS news agency that an emergency brake application is considered to be one of the primary causes for the derailment, with the accident not connected to terrorist activity.
“According to preliminary data, the locomotive driver applied emergency braking, causing the derailment of the first five carts of the train. They fell to the side,” the source said, adding that the reasons for the emergency break are being investigated.
The traffic on the line is currently halted, with repair brigades heading to the crash site, Russian Railways told RIA-Novosti.