CHRONOLOGY-World’s worst recent train accidents

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – At least 120 people were killed and
scores injured in Pakistan on Wednesday when a passenger train
crashed into another and a third train plowed into the
wreckage.

Here are some facts on the world’s worst recent rail
accidents.

June 6, 1981 – At least 800 people are killed when seven
rear coaches of an overcrowded passenger train are blown off
the track and fall into a river during a cyclone in India.

Jan. 13, 1985 – In Ethiopia, several coaches plunge into a
ravine after leaving the rails at a crossing, killing 392.

June 4, 1989 – At least 575 people are killed in the Ural
mountains in the Soviet Union when two passenger trains are
engulfed in an explosion from a leaking gas pipeline.

Jan. 3, 1990 – A packed passenger express crashes into a
freight train in southern Pakistan, killing 307.

Sept. 22, 1994 – Up to 300 people are killed when a train
derails just outside the southern Angolan city of Lubango.

Aug. 20, 1995 – At least 350 people are killed in India
when two trains collide 200 km (125 miles) from Delhi.

Oct. 28, 1995 – About 300 people are killed when an
underground train catches fire in the Azerbaijan capital Baku.

Aug. 2, 1999 – At least 285 are killed in India when two
trains collide north of Calcutta.

Feb. 20, 2002 – Three hundred and sixty-one people are
killed when fire engulfs a crowded passenger train south of
Cairo.

June 24, 2002 – A passenger train, traveling from Dar es
Salaam to the northwestern town of Kigoma in Tanzania, rolls
backwards and crashes into a cargo train, killing at least 281.

Feb. 18, 2003 – Fire and smoke engulf a packed subway train
in Taegu, South Korea, killing 130 people. The fire was
apparently started by an arsonist.

Feb. 18, 2004 – Almost 300 people are killed and 450 are
injured when 51 train wagons filled with petrol, fertilizer and
sulfur products derail and explode near Nishapur, Iran.

April 22, 2004 – A train carrying explosives blows up near
Ryongchon in North Korea. One hundred and sixty-one people are
killed and hundreds injured. Dec. 26, 2004 – More than 1,000
train passengers are swept to their deaths as giant waves from
the Asian tsunami wash a train from the tracks in Sri Lanka.

April 25, 2005 – A packed commuter train derails and slams
into an apartment block near the Japanese city of Osaka,
killing 107.

July 13, 2005 – At least 120 people are killed in the
southern Pakistani province of Sindh when a passenger train
crashes into another at a station and a third ploughs into the
wreckage.