Bridge collapse causes train to derail in western Russia, killing at least seven and injuring 30

A passenger train has derailed in western Russia after a bridge collapsed because of what local officials described as “illegal interference”, killing at least seven people and injuring 30.

The bridge in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, was damaged late on Saturday “as a result of illegal interference in transport operations,” Moscow Railways said in a statement, without elaborating.

The train’s locomotive and several cars derailed “due to the collapse of a span structure of the road bridge as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport”, Russian Railways said on the Telegram messaging app.

Photos posted by government agencies from the scene appeared to show passenger cars from the train ripped apart and lying amid fallen concrete from the collapsed bridge.

Other footage on social media appeared to be taken from inside vehicles which narrowly avoided driving onto the bridge before it collapsed.

Bryansk regional Governor Alexander Bogomaz said emergency services and government officials were working at the scene. He said seven people died and two children were among the 30 injured.

“Everything is being done to provide all necessary assistance to the victims,” he said.

Russia’s Baza and SHOT Telegram channels, which often publish information from sources in the security services and law enforcement, reported that the passenger train crashed into the collapsed bridge.

Baza reported, without providing evidence, that according to preliminary information, the bridge was blown up.

Reuters could not independently verify the Baza and SHOT reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Since the start of the war that Russia launched with its full-scale invasion on Ukraine more than three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes, and covert raids from Ukraine into the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine.

The train was going from the town of Klimovo to Moscow, Russian Railways said.

It collided with the collapsed bridge in the area of a federal highway in the Vygonichskyi district of the Bryansk region, Bogomaz said. The district lies some 100km from the border with Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end the war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.

Ukraine is yet to commit to attending the talks on Monday, saying it first needed to see Russian proposals, while a leading US senator warned Moscow it would be “hit hard” by new US sanctions.

with Reuters