The locomotive and three wagons of a freight train ended up off the rails and, in places, on the road below. That was the Kursk half of a night in which two Russian bridges came down.
It happened in the early hours of Sunday, June 1, at around 02:21 Moscow time, on the Trosna-Kalinovka highway about 11km east of the Ukrainian border. Acting Kursk Governor Alexander Khinshtein said the bridge gave way while the freight train crossed, dropping part of the train onto the road beneath. The locomotive caught fire. The blaze was put out quickly.
Nobody died in Kursk. One driver had leg injuries, Khinshtein said, and he and the rest of the crew went to a hospital nearby. Ukrainska Pravda, citing the low speed of the train, also reported no fatalities.
Ruled terrorism
Russia’s Investigative Committee said explosions had brought down both bridges. Hours later it edited its statement to remove the word “explosions” and gave no reason, AP reported. Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said the incidents were classified as acts of terrorism. Ukrainska Pravda added that unverified reports pointed to a homemade bomb hidden in the Kursk bridge structure.
The Kursk collapse followed a much deadlier one a few hours earlier in the Bryansk region. A road bridge fell onto a passenger train on the Klimovo-Moscow run, with 388 passengers on board. Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz put the toll at seven dead and 66 injured, including three children. Russian Railways said the driver was among those killed.
A pattern on the border
Al Jazeera noted that blasts have derailed several trains, mostly freight, in Russian areas close to Ukraine while the war goes on. Rescue crews cleared debris at both sites, and inspectors found track damage in another part of the Bryansk region, according to Moscow Railway. It did not say whether that damage was linked to the collapses.
Ukraine did not comment on the bridge collapses. Its military intelligence service, GUR, separately said a Russian military train with food and fuel on board was destroyed on its way to Crimea. GUR did not claim the attack or mention the bridges.
Sources
- Bridges collapse in two Russian regions bordering Ukraine, killing seven (Al Jazeera)
- Explosions caused 2 bridges in western Russia to collapse, officials say (AP via NPR)
- Russia investigates bridge explosions in Bryansk and Kursk as terrorist attacks (Ukrainska Pravda)
- Russia reports collapse of bridges in Bryansk, Kursk (DW)
