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CHRONOLOGY-World's worst recent train accidents

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 04:36 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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