Collapses of two bridges in Russia were sabotage – investigators

The collapses of two bridges that caused train derailments in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions were due to sabotage, the national Investigative Committee has said.

On Saturday evening, a bridge fell in front of a moving train in Bryansk Region, killing seven people and injuring 71 others. Several hours later, early on Sunday, a railway bridge collapsed under a moving freight train in Kursk Region, leaving the driver and two of his assistants wounded.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement on Sunday that the bridges had been “blown up” in both incidents.

Criminal cases have been launched over the bridge collapses and will be investigated by experts from the agency’s Main Investigations Directorate, it said.

Representatives of the Investigative Committee are currently working at the sites of the two derailments in order to establish all of the circumstances, the agency added.

Earlier in the day, the acting governor of Kursk, Aleksandr Khinshteyn, said that a railway bridge in the region had gone down as a freight train was crossing it.

Some of the train cars fell onto a highway passing under the bridge, while most of the train remained on the tracks, he said.

The locomotive also caught fire, but the blaze was swiftly extinguished, the acting governor added.

According to Khinshteyn, one of the train drivers suffered leg injuries, and he and other crew members were hospitalized.

Speaking about the derailment in Bryansk Region, Russian Senator Andrey Klishas blamed Kiev and branded Ukraine “a terrorist enclave, without borders, legitimate authorities or laws.”