Montenegro train wreck: many dead, injured

Horrible accidents in the tiny Balkan state of Montenegro: full of passengers train derailed. Thirty-nine people were killed and 135 injured, officials said. "This is not a final toll," warned Deputy Prime Minister Miroslav Ivanisevic after an emergency session of the government. Among the injured were 75 children, Ivanisevic said, adding that the government "will use all possible means to investigate the accident".

See the photoreport of the accident

President Filip Vujanovic and Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic rushed to the crash site in the Moraca river gorge, where the searchlights of rescue teams illuminated one coach lying on its side like a child's toy thrown aside. "A terrible tragedy happened at Bioce and everything is being done to reduce the number of casualties as much as possible," Vujanovic told reporters.

The state declared three days of mourning. Transport Minister Andrija Lompar and National Railways chief Ranko Medenica tendered their resignations.

Doctors in the Adriatic republic of some 650,000 people appealed for blood donors as crowds of onlookers and worried relatives flocked to the main hospital. Some of the injured were delivered in the trunks of private cars.

One survivor spoke of people screaming in panic and lifeless bodies lying on the rocks. He said he was in a carriage that stayed on the rails inside a tunnel when the brakes failed.Survivors told television interviewers that the train felt like it was out of control as it emerged from a tunnel near the village of Bioce.

"The train simply went wild, out of control," one said. "I was fine because I was in a back compartment, those in the front got the worst of it." Montenegro, which remains in loose confederation with Serbia, declared three days of national mourning. Source: agencies. N.U.