Runaway train cars carrying a lethal mix of fuel and chemicals derailed, caught fire and then exploded hours later Wednesday in northeast Iran, killing more than 200 people, injuring at least 400 and leaving dozens trapped beneath crumbled mud homes.
Most of those reported dead were firefighters and rescue workers who had extinguished most of the blaze outside Neyshabur, an ancient city of 170,000 people in a farming region 400 miles east of the capital of Tehran.
The dead also included top city officials–including Neyshabur’s governor, mayor and fire chief as well as the director-general of the provincial railways–who had all gone to the site of the derailment, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The explosion devastated five villages, where authorities rushed in blood supplies and appealed through loudspeakers for donors. Hardest hit was Hashemabad, where 41-year-old Zahra Rezaie, whose mud home was near the tracks, heard the explosion and felt the ground shake. Then the ceiling collapsed.
“It knocked down and broke some dishes. I was sure it was an earthquake, and my first thought was to rush to the school and save my children,” Rezaie said.
An Associated Press photographer who arrived in Dehnow, one of the most severely damaged villages close to the train tracks some 500 yards from the blast, said most of the village’s homes were flattened.
“The houses are all built of clay, and nearly every one has been destroyed, like they had collapsed in an earthquake,” Hassan Sarbakhshian said.
The blast was so powerful that windows were shattered as far as 6 miles away.
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Compiled from RedEye news services and edited by Patrick Olsen (polsen@tribune.com) and Chris Courtney (cdcourtney@tribune.com)
