AP: An express train carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed, killing dozens of people and injuring scores of others in what may have been an act of sabotage, Russian officials said. Health Minister Tatyana Golikova later told reporters Saturday morning that 25 people were killed, 19 were missing and 96 were being treated in hospitals after the last three cars of the 14-car Nevsky Express left the tracks in the Tver province northwest of Moscow. Earlier, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said in televised comments that 39 people were dead, but a Ministry spokesman later said Shoigu had been given the wrong information. Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin told reporters Saturday that the Friday accident may have been caused by an explosion under the tracks, raising fears that the luxury train, popular with business executives and government officials, was the target of a terrorist attack. A light rain started to fall at the scene of the derailment at daybreak Saturday as emergency workers huddled around fires, wrapped in blankets, and two huge cranes lifted pieces of the wreckage clear of the site as crews continued the search for victims. One of the bashed and battered railway carriages lay on its side across the tracks, while baggage and metal debris lay scattered in the muddy ground. Police and prosecutors swarmed over the site and restricted access to what was reported to be a possible bomb crater. Friday night's Nevsky Express was carrying 633 passengers and 20 railway personnel during its regular run to St. Petersburg, the emergencies ministry said. The derailment occurred in a rural area near the border between the Novgorod and Tver provinces, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Moscow and 150 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of St. Petersburg, authorities said.
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