Russia's prosecutor general office has opened a criminal case on terrorism charges after an express train came off the rails killing dozens of people, The head of the Russian national railway company has said the accident could have been caused by a bomb attack. Interfax cited the prosecutors' office as saying they had also opened a criminal case on charges of illegal possession of explosives. Thirty-nine people were killed in the derailment, the ITAR-TASS and Interfax news agencies reportedy, citing emergency officials. "In all there are 39," Alexander Basulin, an official at Russia's emergency situations ministry, was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.
"There were 25 at the beginning, and 14 more were found outside the carriage." Separately, Interfax quoted an unnamed rescue worker as saying that the death toll had risen to 39 from the previous reported figure of 25. The passenger train derailed late Friday evening in Russia's Novgorod region as it travelled between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. *Agencies
