Iran: 21 killed by train derailment – Human error behind tragedy

At least 21 people were killed them after him train derailment with about 350 passengers on board when it struck an excavator in a desert area of ​​central Iran, with authorities calling it a “human error”.

“Twenty people were killed in the crash,” said Ahmad Dehgan, head of Yazd province’s first aid service, quoted by Iran’s state-run IRIB television network.

Rescue operations chief Mehdi Valipur said five of the 11 wagons of the train were derailed. According to the IRIB, the accident took place in a deserted area near the city of Tabas, 900 km southwest of Tehran. The drama took place on the line connecting the cities of Mashhad and Yazd.

“The train carrying 348 passengers derailed when it collided with an excavator,” which was near the rails, said Mir Hassan Mousavi, Iran’s deputy director of the railways. The accident occurred at 05:30 local time (03:00 Greek time).

– “Mainly responsible” the driver –

A spokesman for the National Aid Service, Mojtaba Khaledi, said in a statement that 17 people had been killed and 86 injured, several of them in critical condition.

Following the tragedy, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Rostam Ghasemi, apologized to the Iranians via Twitter, stating that his ministry was responsible for the accident.

He said “the collision with the excavator is the main cause of the accident”, adding that according to the first reports, the driver of the train had braked sharply.

“It is clear that this is a human error, the main responsibility of which lies with the driver,” he added.

The Tabas city prosecutor went to the scene while an investigation was launched to determine the causes of the accident, local media reported.

Judicial authorities in South Khorasan Province, where the accident took place, announced that they had issued arrest warrants against six people accused of being involved in the drama.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi expressed his sorrow and condolences to the families of the victims.