Passenger train from Chechnya's Grozny to Moscow derails because of terrorist act

Investigators found a large shell-hole on the site of the explosion

The passenger train, following to Moscow from Chechnya's capital, Grozny, derailed in the morning today, at about 7:20 a.m. Moscow time. The accident occurred because of the explosion of the railroad. The train operator said that the railways exploded in front of the locomotive.

Diana Shemyakina, the press secretary of the Russian Federal Security Bureau, said that investigators found a shell-hole on the site of the accident. Police officers also found wires and the spot, where the supposed criminal was lying, waiting for the train to approach.

Six passenger cars derailed as a result of the blast. Local authorities say that the accident occurred because of a technical malfunction of the clutching mechanisms. Spokesmen for the Russian Railway Administration reject the version of the technical reason, though, insisting on a terrorist act. The one-meter deep shell-hole, which was found on the railroad, is about two meters in diameter. The bomb destroyed 1.5 meters of the railways, a contact system support and 150 meters of electric wires. The train operator used emergency brakes to stop the train; the explosion did not unhitch the cars.

The passengers of the Grozny-Moscow train did not suffer serious injuries in the accident. Fifteen people asked for medical aid. They refused to be hospitalized: the passengers were hurt when they fell off the sleeping shelves in their compartments. It is noteworthy that the train was moving at a low speed, which allowed to avoid lamentable consequences, Newsru reports.