Passenger train carriages derail in Russia’s north, injuring 20

MOSCOW (Reuters) -A passenger train derailed in Russia’s far northern Komi region on Wednesday, overturning carriages next to the railbed and injuring 20 passengers, the region’s governor said.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s most important investigating authority, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies that no deaths had occurred in the incident outside the town of Inta. Nine carriages left the rails.

Komi regional governor Vladimir Uyba, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said 20 people were injured, three of whom were in serious condition. A total of 215 passengers had been aboard.

News agencies quoted police and emergency services as saying injuries included fractures, bruises, cuts and head trauma.

Video posted online showed passengers being hoisted through smashed windows of overturned cars before being led away from the accident. Several carriages were seen lying on their side on the edge of the railbed.

Russian news agencies quoted officials as saying that two auxiliary trains and investigators had been dispatched to help evacuate passengers from the area, made up largely of forest and swamp.

Officials were checking the safety standards of the affected rail line. Tass news agency quoted police as saying that recent floods had caused an erosion of the railbed.

The train was on its way from Vorkuta, a mining town just above the Arctic Circle, to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in southern Russia.

Russian State Railways, quoted by the news agencies, said traffic had been suspended on the line.

(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Maxim Rodionov; editing by Sharon Singleton, Ron Popeski, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark Heinrich)