Runaway chemical train explodes in Iran killing 300 rescue workers and villagers

About 300 people, most of them firefighters, were killed in an explosion yesterday after a train laden with petrol and industrial chemicals caught fire near the town of Neyshabur in Khorasan province of northeastern Iran.

About 300 people, most of them firefighters, were killed in an explosion yesterday after a train laden with petrol and industrial chemicals caught fire near the town of Neyshabur in Khorasan province of northeastern Iran.

Nearby villages were badly damaged and the blast was heard in the provincial capital, Mashad, 46 miles away.

The contents of the wagons were, in effect, a bomb: 17 tanks of sulphur, six of petrol, seven of industrial fertiliser and 10 of cotton wool combined to produce an explosive mix to rival some weapons of mass destruction.

The train was due to pass through densely populated towns, where the death toll from an explosion would have been far higher. Last night, the death toll stood at 295, according to a document prepared by local officials for the Interior Ministry and seen by Reuters.

Iranian television showed huge clouds of smoke hanging over the devastated village where the train derailed and later exploded. Some small mud houses were almost flattened and few escaped damage. Rescue workers crawled ant-like over the scorched earth against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

The burnt-out shells of cars smouldered streets away and debris littered the scene of the blast. Massive flames rolled up the sides of the charred wreckage of the train for hours after explosion, and the blaze was not finally extinguished until after nightfall.

The disaster began to unfold shortly before 4am when wagons became detached from a freight train near Neyshabur.

As they rolled away they collided with another train before derailing and catching fire. Emergency action was immediate, with local officials and hundreds of firefighters called to the scene of the crash and arrangements made for the evacuation of local villagers.

Eyewitnesses said the blaze was almost out when highly flammable chemical fumes ignited, sending a huge fireball into the air soon after 9.30am. Dozens of firemen, rescue workers and officials were killed instantly. Many villagers were also reported killed and others left buried in the rubble of their ruined homes. Some seismologists believe the blast was so powerful it caused their equipment to register an earth tremor felt for miles around.

But other reports say small tremors had been felt earlier on in the quake-prone area, perhaps causing the crash that led to the disaster.

The arid and sparsely populated province of Khorasan has been decapitated by the explosion: it killed the Neyshabur governor and mayor and the heads of the fire and rail services. Estimates of the number of injured range from 250 to 400, many of whom suffered horrendous chemical burns.

Neyshabur, home to the famed Persian medieval poet Omar Khayyam, lies on the main Tehran-Mashad railway line, which was cut after the explosion. Mashad, one of Shia Islam's most important centres of pilgrimage, was in a state of shock yesterday.

Ambulances rushed the injured to hospital in the provincial capital, while calls were made for blood donations from citizens. Saeed Kaviani, the editor of a local newspaper, told AP news agency: "The whole town is shocked by this accident. Official vehicles mounted with loudspeakers are roaming the city calling for volunteers to donate blood."

The city is one of the largest and wealthiest in the country but has a high rate of crime associated with the flow of drugs from Afghanistan. The disaster, striking only two days before elections which have polarised the country, is a further blow to Iran after the earthquake in December at Bam which killed more than 40,000 people.

Because of the large number of natural catastrophes in Iran, local emergency teams are regarded as some of the best in the world. But local people are becoming concerned about lax safety standards, which are blamed for exacerbating the death toll in natural disasters and leading to unnecessary man-made accidents.

Iran has the highest rate of road deaths in the world and suffers frequent plane crashes. US sanctions make it hard to obtain spare parts for its aged fleet of aircraft.