MAPUTO, May 25: At least 205 people were killed and about 400 hurt in a train crash in Mozambique on Saturday.
One passenger who survived the disaster said a derailment occurred after engineers separated goods wagons from passenger wagons to enable the train to scale a steep hill.
Radio Mozambique quoted police and fire department sources as saying the train had “technical problems” with its brakes.
The crash happened on Saturday morning near the town of Tenga, in Maputo province, 40kms from the Mozambique capital, Maputo, Transport and Communications Minister Tomas Salomao said.
Witnesses saw 106 corpses at the main mortuary in Maputo, but officials said other bodies were still on their way there.
Hospital authorities said 22 people were admitted in a serious condition to the intensive care unit while a further 148 were admitted to wards but were out of immediate danger.
Ambulances and private cars ferried the injured to hospital and health officials said those hurt were above 400.
One man who escaped unhurt from the train said it was going over a steep hill when it appeared to lose power. Engineers separated the goods wagons, which were to the front, from the passenger wagons at the back.
But once that was done, the goods wagons started rolling back, gathering speed, and rammed into the already retreating passenger wagons, causing a derailment, said the man.
The transport minister said he had not been briefed on the exact cause of the crash, but investigators had arrived at the scene.
The train was travelling on the Maputo-Ressano Gracia railway linking Mozambique with South Africa.
President Joaquim Chissano cancelled meetings in his home village of Malaice, in southern Mozambique, on hearing the news and was returning to the capital, a senior minister said.
“At this time of tragedy, I express my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives,” Chissano said in a brief statement issued to the media in Maputo.
“The government will mobilize all means at its disposal to assist the affected families, who have lost loved ones and those who are injured,” Chissano added.
Health officials issued an urgent appeal for blood.
Yacoob Omar, a director at the Maputo hospital, also said the hospital had appealed to doctors and health workers in the private sector to head to hospitals and clinics near them to help treat the injured.—Reuters\AFP
