A passenger train derailed in eastern Iran on Wednesday, resulting in the death of 17 people while more than 50 passengers sustained serious injuries, according to initial reports.
Authorities say that the number of deaths from the Iran train crash could increase, though initial details of the tragedy involving a train allegedly carrying around 350 passengers are still unclear, per an Al Jazeera report.
According to Iranian state media, four of the train's seven carriages derailed in the early morning darkness near the desert city of Tabas, located 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Tehran, the capital of Iran.
Mir Hassan Mousavi of Iran's national railway corporation told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) that the train left on Tuesday at 7:20 pm and crashed at approximately 5:30 am, according to The Sun.
Train Collided With an Excavator
Mousavi added that the initial information on the Iran train crash stated that the train's five-passenger wagons "collided with an excavator and derailed."
"An excavator was next to the railway line and now the head of the High Accident Commission has been sent to the scene to carefully investigate the accident," he noted.
According to an injured passenger, passengers "were bouncing in the car like balls in the air" during the incident, per an ABC KSAT12 story.
Though it was unclear why an excavator would be near the railroad track at night, it could have been part of a repair effort, according to one official.
Mousavi noted all of the Iran train crash passengers who were not hurt were transported to Tabas, where they will board a bus to Yazd.
Red Crescent's Mehdi Valipour said, "22 teams, including 52 rescuers and rescuers from the provinces of South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Yazd, and Isfahan, along with 10 operational vehicles" have been deployed to the site of the Iran train crash.
He said that the forces were trying to get the overturned carriages upright and were hopeful there would not be a significant increase in casualties.
Ambulances and helicopters have been dispatched to remote locations, where connectivity is limited. Officials reported that at least 16 individuals were critically injured, and several were sent to nearby hospitals.
Iran Mourns for Recent Tragedies
Iran has almost 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) of railway lines running across the country, per DW.
In 2004, Iran's biggest train disaster happened near Neyshabur, when a train carrying gasoline, fertilizer, sulfur, and cotton crashed, killing approximately 320 people and injuring 460 more.
The tragedy also caused damage to five communities.
Iran also has one of the world's worst roadway safety records, with 17,000 deaths each year. The high death toll is attributed to widespread violations of traffic laws, hazardous automobiles, and insufficient emergency assistance.
Iran has been mourning the deaths of at least 41 people murdered in a building collapse in the country's southwest, as per a report from The Sun.
The building's collapse and the government response provoked widespread outrage, prompting Iranian state television to abruptly stop the stream after crowds lambasted an official during a speech.
The country is also under United States sanctions over its failed nuclear agreement.
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