21 dead, scores injured in Moscow metro crash

MOSCOW — Twenty-one people died and scores more were wounded after a train derailed in Moscow’s packed metro during rush hour on Tuesday in the worst accident ever to hit one of the world’s busiest subways.

Russian television described scenes of chaos and panic on the capital’s famed system, saying passengers fell like dominoes when the train travelling at 70 kilometres an hour braked abruptly, and three carriages derailed and crumpled.

Rescue teams were still combing through the mangled metal carriages hours later in an attempt to extricate several bodies.

“I thought it was the end,” one surviving passenger said on television. “We were trapped and only got out through a miracle.”

President Vladimir Putin, who is on a trip to Brazil, ordered a criminal probe into the tragedy that put a huge strain on the city of some 12 million and snarled traffic on its notoriously clogged roads amid a heatwave.

Sirens wailed as dozens of ambulances rushed to help treat the wounded and helicopters buzzed overhead to evacuate those with serious injuries, AFP journalists said at the scene outside the Park Pobedy metro station in western Moscow.

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told Russian agencies that 21 people had died.

More than 160 people were hospitalised, including 42 still in intensive care, the head of Moscow’s health department Georgy Golukhov told journalists.

At least two foreign nationals — a Tajik and a Chinese — were among the dead, Golukhov said.

“This is a huge catastrophe for us,” deputy prime minister Olga Golodets said in televised remarks.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, led a prayer to honour the victims, while city hall called for a day of mourning on Wednesday.

The accident raised calls for urgent improvements to the ornate but overcrowded metro, which first opened in 1935 under Stalin.

The Investigative Committee said it was looking at a number of possible causes including a mechanical flaw in a carriage and a power failure.

A terror attack has been ruled out, the committee said.

Moscow deputy mayor Pyotr Biryukov said earlier that several people had been trapped in the train, while the authorities said more than 1,000 had to be evacuated.

Passengers said smoke quickly spread through the carriages and rescue workers treated them with oxygen.

“After the most thorough investigation there will be not only dismissals but also criminal cases against those who are responsible for this tragedy,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

“What happened is one of the most major accidents of recent times.”

News of the crash quickly spread on social networks.

Alexei Naryshkin, a presenter on Echo of Moscow radio, posted a photograph on Twitter of rescue workers carrying a body in a black bag.

“They are laying out the injured. They constantly go down with stretchers. They carry them out. Some are unconscious. Some are moaning with pain,” Naryshkin wrote.

Another witness, a young man in a polo shirt, said in televised comments: “I got into the carriage and after about 20 seconds, the light went out and the train was just pulled apart. I was just thrown into the centre of the carriage.”

“Panic erupted,” he said.

“We climbed out of the carriages and we saw a blockage, men took hammers and pliers and broke it down and we walked on. The train was smashed, the chassis was just pulled apart.”