Date:23/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/23/stories/2004072316261100.htm

International

Train disaster: sabotage not ruled out

ANKARA, JULY 22. A high-speed train carrying 234 passengers and proceeding from Istanbul to Ankara derailed today, killing 128 people and injuring 57, Health Ministry Under Secretary, Nejdet Unuvar, said.

At least four of the bogies overturned near Pamukova in Sakarya province.

Muammer Turker, head of the crisis centre in Sakarya, said the authorities were not ruling out sabotage.

The train began operating on June 4 amid controversy, with critics saying that the track was old and could not withstand the new trains.

Suleyman Karaman, the head of Turkey's railway authority, quoted the train's conductor as saying that the train was travelling at normal speed and he "could not understand what had gone wrong."

At the site of the crash, people were seen climbing overturned bogies looking for survivors.