17 people were killed when a train derailed near the city of Tabas in central Iran while traveling between the cities of Mashhad (northeast) and Yazd (center) on Wednesday morning, official media reported.
“Seventeen people were killed and several others were injured as a result of the accident,” Mojtaba Khalidi, a spokesman for the National Relief Administration, told state television, noting that “50 people were injured, 12 of them in critical condition, and were taken to hospital.”
Iranian media reported that 4 of the 7 carriages of the train derailed early in the morning in the dark near the desert town of Tabas. She added that rescuers, ambulances and 3 helicopters have arrived in a remote area where communications are poor.
The derailment occurred 50 km (30 miles) from Tabes, about 550 km (340 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, on a railway linking the city to the central city of Yazd.
