Hundreds were injured in Congo Train Mishap,60 dead
A rail tragedy in Congo-Brazzaville caused the deaths of at least 60 people and hurt hundreds Tuesday. Senior official warned that many more victims may still be pulled from the wrecked carriages.
A survivor said, the train swerved off the tracks after crashing into a bend at full speed in the early hours of Tuesday, as it traveled between Brazzaville and the southern city of Pointe-Noire.
"At a bend that the driver went into at full speed, all six carriages where the passengers were derailed. We were thrown by the impact," he told AFP.
Sixty bodies have been brought to the morgue in Pointe Noire. It was reported further 280 people were injured including 80 seriously, said a city official. A warning was also sent out that the death toll should be expecte to rise.
"The toll we are currently giving is temporary," he told AFP by telephone from the crash scene, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from Pointe Noire, where rescuers were working to clear carriages from the tracks.
"The final toll will be very heavy," he warned. "Eight of the train’s 10 carriages were thrown. The tracks are blocked over 100 meters," he added.
The 510-kilometer (315-mile) CFCO line is the main connection between the capital and Pointe Noire on the Atlantic.
Originally following the Congo River, it was built between 1921 and 1934 during French colonial rule and thousands of Africans are said to have died building it.
In September 1991, an impact on the same line left 100 dead and 300 injured in the country’s worst ever rail disaster.
In Tuesday’s crash, it is Congo-Brazzaville’s second major transport accident in the space of a few days following the 11 people, including the Australian mining tycoon Ken Talbot, killed in a plane crash in Congo’s thick jungle on Saturday.
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