At least seven people have died and over 40 others injured after two bridges collapsed overnight in separate parts of Russia near the border with Ukraine. The first and deadliest incident happened in Bryansk region late Saturday when a road bridge fell onto a moving passenger train.
The train, which was travelling from Klimovo to Moscow, was hit by heavy trucks that came down with the bridge. According to Governor Alexander Bogomaz, 47 people were taken to the hospital, including one child. Emergency services worked through the night to rescue trapped passengers and secure the area.
Images shared online showed mangled train carriages and passengers helping each other escape from the wreckage in the dark. The crash caused the train’s locomotive and several cars to derail.
Moscow Railway suggested on its Telegram channel that “illegal interference” may have caused the bridge to collapse. Russia’s interregional transport prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident.
Not long after, a second bridge collapsed in the Zheleznogorsk district, also in a region bordering Ukraine. That collapse derailed a freight locomotive, which caught fire. One of the train drivers suffered injuries to his legs, acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
Khinshtein, also posting on Telegram, stated: “The cause of the bridge collapse will be established. All emergency services are working on the scene. I am keeping the situation under control.”
It is not yet clear whether the two collapses are connected. There has been no official comment from Ukraine, but the locations of both incidents — roughly 100km from the Ukrainian border — have raised questions about possible sabotage.
Passengers from the first train were evacuated and taken to a nearby station where a replacement train was arranged to take them to Moscow.
Additional emergency workers, rescue equipment, and light towers were deployed to the site to aid overnight recovery efforts, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
As of Sunday morning, investigators were still on the scene, and authorities have promised to uncover the exact cause of both collapses.
