Twenty-one people died and scores more were injured after a train derailed in Moscow’s packed metro during morning rush hour on Tuesday in the worst accident ever to hit one of the world’s busiest subways.
Russian television described scenes of chaos and panic on the capital’s famed system, saying passengers fell like dominoes when the train travelling at 70 kilometres (over 40 miles) an hour braked abruptly and three carriages derailed and crumpled.
Rescue teams combed through the mangled metal carriages throughout the day, in attempts to extricate bodies.
“I thought it was the end,” one surviving passenger said on television. “We were trapped and only got out through a miracle.”
President Vladimir Putin, who is on a trip to Brazil, ordered a criminal probe into the tragedy that put a huge strain on the city of some 12 million and snarled traffic on its notoriously clogged roads amid a heatwave.
Sirens wailed as dozens of ambulances rushed to help treat the wounded and helicopters buzzed overhead to evacuate those with serious injuries, AFP journalists said at the scene outside the Park Pobedy metro station in western Moscow.
Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told reporters that 21 people had died.
Around 130 people were hospitalised, and 42 were in intensive care, the head of Moscow’s health department, Georgy Golukhov, told journalists.
At least two foreign nationals — a Tajik and a Chinese — were among the dead, he said.
“This is a huge catastrophe for us,” deputy prime minister Olga Golodets said in televised remarks.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, led a prayer to honour the victims, while city hall called for a day of mourning on Wednesday.
The accident sparked calls for urgent improvements to the overcrowded metro, which first opened in 1935 under Stalin.
– Terror attack ruled out –
The Investigative Committee said it was looking at a number of possible causes including a mechanical flaw in a carriage and a power failure.
A terror attack has been ruled out, the committee said.
“After the most thorough investigation there will be not only dismissals but also criminal cases against those who are responsible for this tragedy,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
“What happened is one of the most major accidents of recent times.”
The authorities said more than 1,000 people had to be evacuated.
Passengers said smoke quickly spread through the carriages and rescue workers treated them with oxygen.
News of the crash quickly spread on social networks.
Alexei Naryshkin, a presenter on Echo of Moscow radio, posted a photograph on Twitter of rescue workers carrying a body in a black bag.
“They are laying out the injured. They constantly go down with stretchers. They carry them out. Some are unconscious. Some are moaning with pain,” Naryshkin wrote.
– ‘Panic erupted’ –
Another witness, a young man in a polo shirt, said in televised comments: “I got into the carriage and after about 20 seconds, the light went out and the train was just pulled apart. I was just thrown into the centre of the carriage.”
“Panic erupted,” he said.
“We climbed out of the carriages and we saw a blockage, men took hammers and pliers and broke it down and we walked on. The train was smashed, the chassis was just pulled apart.”
Television footage showed rescue workers carrying bloodied passengers away on stretchers, while paramedics treated some on nearby grass verges.
Sobbing victims, some with bandages around their heads, sat on chairs outside the metro.
“This is the most serious man-made disaster in the Moscow underground in its entire history,” infrastructure expert Alexei Khazbiyev told AFP.
“It is the most serious accident apart from terrorist attacks.”
He accused the authorities of not doing enough to modernise the system, saying it could not cope with the current passenger traffic.
“We are paying for poor-quality and dangerous services,” he said
Families of those killed would receive 1 million roubles ($29,000) in compensation, while those injured would get up to 500,000 roubles ($14,500), authorities said.
Moscow’s metro, famed for its Socialist Realist art, is considered one of the world’s busiest and carries some nine million people every day.
The train derailed between Park Pobedy — the deepest station at 84 metres underground — and Slavyansky Boulevard on the blue line.
In the last serious accident on the Moscow metro in 1982, eight people died when an escalator broke down.
Around 40 people were killed in twin suicide bombings on the metro in 2010.