DUSHANBE, July 15, 2014, Asia-Plus – Russian media sources report that twelve people were killed and up to 120 injured today as a Moscow underground train derailed between two stations during the morning harsh hour.
Injured passengers were reportedly carried on stretchers out of metro stations and helicopters ferried the most seriously hurt to hospital.
Investigators reportedly said a power surge caused the train to stall and several cars to come off the rails between the Slavyansky Boulevard and Park Pobedy stations.
Russian news agency Interfax quoted a city transport services spokesman as saying that that all passengers had been evacuated from the affected stations by midday, dismissing reports that some passengers were still trapped in the underground tunnel.
The Itar-Tass news agency quoted a health official as saying that some 50 people were n a serious conditions.
The Interfax news agency said that no foreigners were among the injured.
Meanwhile, Tajik Ambassador to Russia Imomuddin Sattorov ordered relevant services of Tajik Embassy in Moscow to monitor the situation. The Embassy employees reportedly visited the accident scene to find out whether there were Tajik nationals among those injured. “There is no more exact information about the accident casualties,” Mohammad Ezamzod, a spokesman for the Tajik Embassy in Moscow, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
The Moscow subway is the world”s busiest, with as many as 9 million people on week days riding a system. Park Pobedy is the deepest subway station in Moscow at 84 meters, complicating rescue efforts.
The accident is one of the most serious to hit the Moscow subway in recent years.
