5 of the 11 vehicles deviated from the lane in the accident

21 killed in train derailment in central Iran

• Rescuers evacuate the victims from the accident site.

  Reuters

• Train accidents in Iran are frequent.

  Reuters

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At least 21 people were killed and dozens injured, yesterday, when a train derailed near the city of Tabas in central Iran, after colliding with an excavator located near its tracks, in one of the worst train accidents in Iran in years.

The train was making a trip between Mashhad (northeast), the second largest city in the country, to the city of Yazd in its center, with 348 people on board, before it deviated from its tracks, at dawn yesterday, in a remote desert area.

The head of the emergency organization in Yazd province, Ahmed Dehghan, said that at least 21 people died in the accident, according to what was reported on the official TV website.

The spokesman for the National Relief Organization, Mojtaba Khalidi, had reported earlier yesterday that 17 people had been killed and 86 others wounded, 37 of whom were taken to hospital.

Khalidi warned of the possibility of a high death toll due to critical cases among the wounded, stressing that "24 ambulances and three helicopters were sent to the place."

The train derailed at 5:30 a.m. local time yesterday, according to the official media, quoting rescue officials.

Officials confirmed that five of the 11 cars that make up the train derailed as a result of the accident.

The deputy head of the Iranian Railways Company, Mir Hassan Mousavi, told the official channel that "the train, which was carrying 348 passengers, deviated after contact with a drilling machine" that was near the railway.

Pictures published by the "ISNA" agency showed a yellow tracked excavator flipping on its side, while the bottom of it touched the cars of the train still on the track in a desert area in the center of the country.

Also, aerial footage shown by local media showed that at least four cars deviated from the tracks, including two completely separated from the rest of the train.

Some of the wagons appeared to have flipped on their side, and sustained severe damage.

Tabas is located in South Khorasan Province, about 900 km by road southeast of Tehran, on the road between Yazd, one of the most prominent cities in the center of the country, and Mashhad in the northeast, the second largest city in Iran.

The derailment of the train comes more than two weeks after a part of a building collapsed in the city of Abadan in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, in an accident that killed 43 people, according to the latest figures announced by officials, the day before yesterday, as searches continued under the rubble.

On May 23, a large part of the 10-storey "Metropol" building collapsed in Abadan, one of the main cities in the border province with Iraq, causing one of the worst disasters resulting from similar accidents in years.

The incident of the collapse of the building sparked a series of popular movements in solidarity with the families of the victims, interspersed with protests against corruption and calls for those responsible to be held accountable.

Two trains collided in northern Iran in November 2016, killing 44 people and injuring more than 80 others, in one of the worst railway disasters in Iran in years.

In January 2010, at least seven people were killed when a train derailed between Mashhad and Tehran.

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