Terror fear in Russia crash

2009-11-28 08:41

Moscow - The death toll from a Russian train crash has risen to 39 after more bodies were pulled from wrecked carriages, an official from the Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday.

"The figure is 39," an official from the ministry told Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu on a video conference aired live on the Vesti-24 news channel.

The Nevsky Express, carrying 661 passengers from Moscow to St Petersburg, was derailed at 21:34 near the village of Uglovka about 350 km north of Moscow.

A Reuters photographer saw soldiers carrying four body bags away from the scene where rescue workers cut through the tangled steel of at least one wrecked train carriage.

A spokesperson for Russia's main domestic intelligence service, the FSB, declined to comment on whether an attack was suspected but Russian Railways said that an explosive device may have caused the derailment.

"One of the versions is that the cause of the incident was an explosive blast," the state owned train operator said in a statement. Interfax news agency said a one-metre wide crater had been found next to the railway track.

- Reuters