Five people have been killed and 120 injured as several subway cars derailed on the Moscow Metro on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya dark blue Metro line on Tuesday morning, Russia Today reported.
Five deaths have been confirmed by the head of Moscow’s healthcare agency, Georgy Golukhov.
“One hundred and twenty people have sought medical help, 106 were taken to hospital. About a half of them are seriously injured,” Golukhov told ITAR-TASS.
The first carriage of the train sustained most of the damage, according to an eyewitness of the accident who spoke to RT.
A law enforcement official told ITAR-TASS that three train cars had derailed, “but not overturned.”
About seven people reportedly remain trapped in one of the train carriages.
Attempts are being made to try and evacuate the stricken passangers, who are stuck in a tunnel between Park Pobedy and Slavyansky Bulvar stations, in the west of Moscow.
There are some seriously injured people, according to preliminary reports. Doctors and rescue workers have deployed stretchers down the tunnel for their evacuation.
News of the derailment was preceded by reports of smoke detected on the dark blue line of the Moscow Metro. Later, Moscow’s emergencies agency denied reports of smoke and said a sudden failure in the electricity supply to a conductor rail could have caused the accident.
Sixty-six buses, forty ambulances and eight helicopters have been deployed by rescuers for evacuations. Fifty people have already reportedly been evacuated from Slavyansky Bulvar and 200 from Park Pobedy.
