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| Subway Derailment in Moscow Kills 20 | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| MOSCOW — A morning commute ended in darkness, smoke and bloody mayhem for passengers on the Moscow metro on Tuesday when a train derailed underground, killing 20 people and injuring at least 100 others. | |
| Witnesses described being suddenly heaved out of their seats and landing in piles in the center of the wagons as three cars derailed and jackknifed in a tunnel about 200 yards from the Slavic Boulevard metro stop. Passengers posted cellphone images of people walking to safety through a tunnel. | Witnesses described being suddenly heaved out of their seats and landing in piles in the center of the wagons as three cars derailed and jackknifed in a tunnel about 200 yards from the Slavic Boulevard metro stop. Passengers posted cellphone images of people walking to safety through a tunnel. |
| The cause was not immediately clear. The authorities blamed a power failure, a botched emergency stop or a mechanical flaw with a wheel chassis. Officials cited in Russian media quickly ruled out terrorism. | The cause was not immediately clear. The authorities blamed a power failure, a botched emergency stop or a mechanical flaw with a wheel chassis. Officials cited in Russian media quickly ruled out terrorism. |
| “I was flung into the center of the wagon,” one passenger told the television station LifeNews. “A panic ensued,” the unidentified passenger said. “The train literally was torn apart, the wagons crumpled and a lot of people were injured and some wound up squeezed” between bent metal debris. | “I was flung into the center of the wagon,” one passenger told the television station LifeNews. “A panic ensued,” the unidentified passenger said. “The train literally was torn apart, the wagons crumpled and a lot of people were injured and some wound up squeezed” between bent metal debris. |
| The passenger said riders were obviously not expecting a sudden stop and were thrown on top of each other. | The passenger said riders were obviously not expecting a sudden stop and were thrown on top of each other. |
| Lenta.ru, an online news site, quoted another unidentified passenger describing a “sudden braking, the lights went out, sparks, and heavy smoke. Everybody was thrown to one side.” Firefighters reached the wreck within six minutes, the website reported. At street level, rescue personnel evacuated some of the injured in helicopters to avoid the usual rush-hour traffic jams, the news agency Itar-Tass reported. The authorities said scores of the injured were in grave condition. | Lenta.ru, an online news site, quoted another unidentified passenger describing a “sudden braking, the lights went out, sparks, and heavy smoke. Everybody was thrown to one side.” Firefighters reached the wreck within six minutes, the website reported. At street level, rescue personnel evacuated some of the injured in helicopters to avoid the usual rush-hour traffic jams, the news agency Itar-Tass reported. The authorities said scores of the injured were in grave condition. |
| Moscow has had reason to prepare for subway emergencies. In 2010, twin suicide bombings carried out by female terrorists from the region of Dagestan killed 39 people during a morning rush hour. The accident on Tuesday was the worst loss of life in the city’s metro system since that attack. | Moscow has had reason to prepare for subway emergencies. In 2010, twin suicide bombings carried out by female terrorists from the region of Dagestan killed 39 people during a morning rush hour. The accident on Tuesday was the worst loss of life in the city’s metro system since that attack. |
| On a crystalline summer morning, the news media in the capital were saturated with coverage of the accident, elbowing out news of the war in Ukraine that has fixated the media here for months. | On a crystalline summer morning, the news media in the capital were saturated with coverage of the accident, elbowing out news of the war in Ukraine that has fixated the media here for months. |
| The Echo of Moscow radio station interviewed a train conductor debunking the theory that a loss of electrical power could have caused a derailing. He said that an electrical commuter train would coast to a safe stop in that case. | The Echo of Moscow radio station interviewed a train conductor debunking the theory that a loss of electrical power could have caused a derailing. He said that an electrical commuter train would coast to a safe stop in that case. |
| The news agency Interfax cited an unnamed official who was described as being close to the investigation saying that a wheel assembly had come loose from the undercarriage of a wagon. Since this occurred near the front of the train, and the car came to an abrupt halt, some wagons behind it then also jumped their rails, the official said. | The news agency Interfax cited an unnamed official who was described as being close to the investigation saying that a wheel assembly had come loose from the undercarriage of a wagon. Since this occurred near the front of the train, and the car came to an abrupt halt, some wagons behind it then also jumped their rails, the official said. |
| The derailing closed one of the heaviest-traveled lines of the Moscow metro, the Arbat-Pokrovsky line, which bisects the center of the city; the authorities said it would take at least 24 hours to clear the debris. | The derailing closed one of the heaviest-traveled lines of the Moscow metro, the Arbat-Pokrovsky line, which bisects the center of the city; the authorities said it would take at least 24 hours to clear the debris. |
| The train derailed as it traveled the line heading toward the outskirts of the city, two stops from a circular metro line that defines the capital’s central district. Had the accident occurred on a more crowded inbound train during the morning rush hour, the toll in lives would most likely have been higher. | The train derailed as it traveled the line heading toward the outskirts of the city, two stops from a circular metro line that defines the capital’s central district. Had the accident occurred on a more crowded inbound train during the morning rush hour, the toll in lives would most likely have been higher. |