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Crashed train in Iran: several dead
Photo: Iranian Red Crescent Society/EPA
At least 21 people have died in a train crash in Iran.
According to the Iranian news agency Isna, citing the Red Crescent, several dozen other passengers were injured in the accident near the city of Tabas.
Accordingly, the train derailed on the route between the pilgrimage city of Mashhad and the desert city of Yasd.
The train collided with an excavator that was near the tracks, deputy head of the Iranian railway company, Mir Hassan Mousavi, told state television.
The exact cause of the collision is unclear.
Hundreds of passengers on the train
Pictures from the Iranian news agency Isna show derailed train cars amid dust.
Rescue workers rushed to the scene of the accident about 50 kilometers outside of Tabas.
Helicopters were also deployed to rescue the seriously injured.
Almost 350 passengers are said to have been on the train.
Eight of eleven wagons jumped off the track, according to the governor's office of the province of Khorasan.
A traveler described to Isna the moments of tragedy when the train suddenly braked sharply: 'The passengers lost their balance and flew around like balls.
The windows of our compartment shattered,” said the eyewitness.
"But we managed to escape through the broken window."
The accident is reminiscent of a serious train disaster in 2016, when dozens of people were killed and injured in northeastern Iran.
At that time, the rescue work was also made more difficult by the fact that the scene of the accident was in a remote region.
The worst rail accident in Iran occurred in 2004 when a freight train carrying chemicals exploded near Nishabur, killing more than 300 people.
ptz/dpa/AFP