Four people are still unaccounted for after the recent derailment of a train due to a bomb blast, with the death toll rising to 26, officials said on Monday.
The death of a hospitalized female passanger on Sunday brought the official death toll to 26, Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said on Monday.
Three cars of high-speed train No. 166 from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed Friday evening after an explosive device equivalent to 7 kg (15 lbs) of TNT detonated on the railroad tracks. According to the latest information, 26 people were killed and over 90 were left injured. One body has yet to be identified.
"The whereabouts of four passengers of the derailed Nevsky Express train have yet to be established," an emergencies ministry spokesman said.
Earlier reports said six people were missing.
The incident is being investigated as a terrorist attack, and President Dmitry Medvedev has demanded an "intensive" probe.
The attack occurred near the border of the Novgorod and Tver regions, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Moscow.
The train, with more than 600 passengers, is popular with business people and government officials, and Boris Yevstratikov, the head of the Russian State Reserves Agency, and Sergei Tarasov, a former senator from St. Petersburg, were among the dead.
A blast derailed another Nevsky Express train, injuring 60 people, with some 30 people hospitalized, in August 2007.
sections: Society, Accidents, World News |
Russian News
DEATH Alexander
[View all comments]
[Print]
