MOSCOW — A passenger train derailed between Moscow and St. Petersburg late Friday, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, according to authorities and a Russian news agency.
The three rear cars of an express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg went off the tracks in the Novgorod province, federal authorities said. A spokesman for state-run Russian Railways, Dmitry Pertsev, said that four cars derailed and that there were injuries.
The state-run news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unidentified emergency official as saying preliminary information indicated 10 people were killed and about 130 injured. The same official later said nine bodies had been found at the scene and that the number of injured was about 55, the agency reported.
Pertsev said the cause of the derailment was not known. Russian news agencies cited unidentified officials as saying a small crater was found at the site of the wreck, leading to speculation that it could have been caused by a bomb.
A bomb blast on the same line in 2007 derailed a passenger train and injured 27 people.
The line between Russia’s capital and its No. 2 city is heavily travelled and trains are often crowded.
The derailment occurred near the border between the Novgorod and Tver provinces, about 250 miles (400 kilometres) northwest of Moscow and 155 miles (250 kilometres) southeast of St. Petersburg, authorities said.
Russian news agencies reported that some injured passengers were being taken by train to the next large station up the line and were to be hospitalized in the area, with some being taken to St. Petersburg for medical attention.